


In My Heart the Will

by NightingaleManor



Category: Death Note
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Childhood Trauma, F/M, Gen, Romance, Schizophrenia, Serial Killers, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 23:57:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 42,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/985171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightingaleManor/pseuds/NightingaleManor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to 'In My Hands the Means'. After the Ritual Killings case in Tokyo was solved, our young female detective of many names was institutionalized for nearly two years. In the time that she was away, L became interested in another murder case that has started up. He decides to call on the help of Myles once again to not only move things along more quickly, but also to see her again. It would seem that more went on in her parent's past than even she herself can believe. </p><p>How did all of this really start?</p><p>Who or what is Myles really afraid of?</p><p>How is it all connected?</p><p>All these and other questions reader's of 'In My Hands the Means' may still have are answered here in 'In My Heart the Will'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Zola

Zola

Brevis esse latoro obscurus fio

Every news article on my wall stood for something. The wall across from my bed had ones that stood for the days I had been here. To its right was the wall with the door in and out and the articles on that stood for the conversations I had with people the staff here had called ' fake' ,'delusions', and 'hallucinations'. Then to the right of that wall where my bed was were ones that represented the dreams I had and then the final wall's articles were examples of the conspiracies going on outside. They involved the corrupt agencies of the world as well as the people that had put me in here in the first place. I had adapted to the rituals here and after awhile of allowing myself to conform to them I stopped being able to see my numbers and patterns. I was no longer able to use my decoding abilities. Before long I knew that I would end up like the other victims of knowing too much... complete zombification.

Either way I looked at it, I was doomed. If I didn't take my medication I was stuck here but if I did take my medication I would lose my sight, the people I cared about, and probably even my life. At times this realization would make me cry myself to sleep and other times I would cry because I felt that my friends had already been taken over by the wars waging out in that boring and ugly world that was given the name of reality.

I had been here since I was eighteen...I am presently twenty. I didn't know or remember why I was here and I never really cared for the reasons they were always giving me. They were a bunch of liars, zombies, and /or members of one conspiracy or another and I wanted no part of it.

Today I was sitting in my room digging through the newspaper I had gotten in search of anything that went under any of the four categories I mentioned. Today was the worst of them...I couldn't find my patterns or my numbers at all. Learning this made tears roll down my face, but then I threw the articles, shoved them all off my bed, and screamed with rage holding my head.

I needed out. No one believes a word of what I say and these people are taking everything away from me.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCx

I was talking on the phone with one of the staff at the institute that Jezebel was at when he said that it may take more time for her to get a better grip on reality. Her mind was having difficulties getting her back on track and seemed to have thrown out snippets and even some large pieces of information.

Talking with him didn't seem to be getting me anywhere.

" Watari, I need you to drive me somewhere." I was actually putting on my shoes as I said this.

" Of course, L." The elderly man replied.

" I think you know where too... there seems to, once again, be something about Fleur's past that will help me with my latest case and, unfortunately, she resides there. I am also unable to get through to her personal files. I need to talk to her as soon as possible. I've been missing her presence, anyways." I explained without any real need to.

" Very well, then." Watari never really demanded an explanation from me.

Within the hour we were at the institution and I was walking towards the front desk.

" Hello, sir and welcome. How may I help you?" The man behind the desk asked with a smile. For one reason or another, his smile was creepy... as though he belonged here as much as some of the clients here did if not more. I just decided to shrug it off. I had never been inside such a sterile place before.

" I would like to talk to a Jezebel Shanton. I believe she was institutionalized about two years ago for attempting suicide and hearing/seeing things and people." I spoke to the man casually, but his response was not one I was expecting.

" I'm sorry but you are unable to see her at this time. She is asleep and even if she wasn't... she is not a client you are able to visit so simply. You must have a serious reason in order to gain access to-"

" Watari, can you deal with this?" I requested boredly over my shoulder at the man.

" Yes, of course. It'll only be a moment." Was his reply, and after a few minutes we were being led by an orderly to the West wing of the building.

" What is her diagnosis?" I questioned even though I already knew.

" Undifferentiated schizophrenia with mostly disorganized symptoms. That is pretty much all us orderlies know. All details are things that only the psychologists here know and they have a code of confidentiality." The woman explained as she stopped at the door. I felt that she wasn't telling as much as she knew.

" I'll be waiting outside in case things don't go well." She muttered as she sat down in a chair in front of the door. Watari and I shared a look before walking into the room and seeing Jezebel fast asleep on the small bed in her room. The next thing I noticed was all of the articles taped on the walls. Every wall was literally covered in them like a collage. Looking over them I noticed that they had all been written on. Words and numbers were circled or underlined and some were even connected by lines explaining one thing or another.

" I don't think it would be a good idea to bring her back with us while she's sleeping. With the way her mind works she'll more than likely have some sort of episode and do something that would cause her to hurt herself." I murmured softly as I looked over at her again. Her strawberry blonde hair was messy and had grown out quite a bit. I could see the scars on her hand and part of her shoulder/back that was showing. I didn't like that there were many ways in which she could have gotten those aside from the ones that weren't recognizable from her father when she was seven.

" Is she ever awake in the morning?" I asked her after Watari and I had left the room.

" No, it seems that it might be a part of her schizophrenia. If you plan on liberating her from here then you'll have to come in later at night. She hasn't slept regularly since she got here." The woman murmured.

" No, she's been that way quite some time longer than that. It is odd that it hasn't changed since the reason is gone, though." The young victim of insomnia noted to himself.

" Jezebel isn't fond of taking her medication. She used to refuse it nonstop for at least a year. Every once in awhile she'll go off her lithium and we know because after the effects of the drug wear off... more articles that have been written on show up." This I understood since I had researched schizophrenia once when I was young and then a second time with Jezebel's work before I started working with her some years ago.

" What are her symptoms?" As I knew it could involve things that I still hadn't looked up or didn't already know.

" Delusions of conspiracies, hallucinations that are triggered by stress the most common being ' Susie' and ' Bastien'. There is also disorganized thinking sometimes as well as disorganized behavior. These are positive symptoms..."

" What about the negative symptoms?" They were even categorizing types of symptoms now?

" She appears stoic...forgets to take care of herself sometimes. Jezebel is also socially withdrawn." That last part wasn't very new.

" Anything else?"

" Cognitive symptoms like memory problems and difficulties with paying attention. These are all less common than the delusions and hallucinations."

' But also nothing new... probably just more severe. Has she forgotten about me?' It might have been a selfish thing to think considering that I was supposed to be caring for her, but after all that had gone on it's not like I loved her any less.

" We shall be back later on tonight." I was thankful that this woman wasn't asking us any questions. That would have only made things more difficult.

" She usually wakes up around 8 or 9."

" Thank you." I told her softly before we walked past her to the outside instead of saying ' I know'.

'" Of course I'm going to stay. Didn't you hear a word of what I said? You helped me, I helped you. You saved my life, and I fell in love with you and all that other good stuff. Yes, I'm staying and you'll never be able to truly get rid of me. You're stuck with me until the zombiepocalypse."

 

 

" And you know what the best and most fantabulistic part is?"

 

 

" There's something better than everything else you just mentioned?"

 

 

" The zombiepocalpse will never come."

 

 

I woke up around 8:30 and sat up in bed, looking around at the mess I had made and froze. Something was different. The paper articles on the floor had been disturbed meaning someone had been in my room. This was unusual because staff hardly ever walked in here without having a reason like giving me my lithium, and I knew it wasn't that because they can't give me my lithium while I'm sleeping...that and the desk where they usually put it was by my bed and not in front of it.

While I was picking up papers from the floor the door opened and two people more than usual walked in. Glancing up I saw two men with Maki. One was a tall kind-looking old man and the other was a little taller than me ( he's 5'8'' and she's 5'6''), about my age, and sleep deprived. I felt the urge to back away from him as he crouched down and started picking up the papers that were still on the floor. I just stared at him when he offered them to me. My eyes turned to the older man and then to Maki, asking the silent questions of who they were and what they were doing here. She only smiled and I peered uncertainly at the man in front of me before accepting the papers. Then I stood up and placed them on my bed. Why did the two of them seem so familiar?

" Jezebel, this is Ryuuzaki and Watari. They're here to talk to you." I didn't answer as she walked out and left me with my ' visitors'.

" I know that this might not be the best way to see someone again, but I would like your assistance with something I'm working on." Ryuuzaki explained as he stood. My puzzled expression gave him a hint, and he looked around my room.

" Why won't you talk to me? I know you are capable of speech." He muttered, not seeming annoyed.

" You look familiar but... I don't remember where... who are you?" The man before her seemed slightly surprised and just as equally...disappointed. Watari only chuckled.

" I already-"

" You gave Mille bullshit names because if they were real ones I think you would both have a last name to give."

" Sorry, I have my precautions. I am Ryuuga Hideki." I gave him an annoyed side glance as I started organizing the papers on my bed.

" More bullshit. If you feel you must hide your real name so badly you must be someone who doesn't want to be remembered when 'their name' is spoken. There is no real need for you to hide your name if you were a conspirator...so you must be someone of more importance...like say a detective." Throwing in that little half guess, I saw his eyes pop.

" Guess I'm still pretty good with shocking people...though this seems to be a more positive way of shocking them." Jezebel said, muttering the last part. Ryuuga/Ryuuzaki was staring at me while I just stood there feeling a little drowsy.

" Well, if it's that big of a deal I'd have to say that you were L and that this case-" I stopped in mid-sentence and my mind seemed to have been at fault for it.

" Miss Shanton, are you alright?" I barely heard his voice as my head pounded. That's when I disconnected from my emotions to help me calm down. I had only been taking my medication long enough for things other than my 'disorganized behavior/thoughts' to diminish, so I still seemed to react oddly.

" Miss Shanton?" He hoped I could hear his voice better this time and my head snapped up so I could meet his eye.

" I'm sorry, what?" I got a closer look at his face and I tried to remember who he was and why he reminded me of someone I knew.

'Arms wrapped around me as he pressed his face to my neck, kissing it lightly.'

I gasped and threw myself backwards, red faced and wide eyed.

" Are you alright?" His voice was familiar to me too and I looked at the ground to my left. Why was I thinking of those dreams right now? It had never happened before when I was around people.

" Oh, right, um... sure. You guys are going to get me out of here so I can help you with a case." L shugged slightly.

" That would not be a very good idea. I will come here at this time several days a week and talk over the case with you. That way you can help us without putting yourself at risk."

" Aren't you putting yourself at risk every time you come here?" His head tilted to the side at my words, as he contemplated the truth in them.

" Yes... and no." He replied, and my ears perked up at the sound of these words. Why was it that I enjoyed his presence? What made him so different? I had apparently met him before so why couldn't I remember and put a name to his face? He must have assumed that I wanted an explanation because of his following words.

" Because, Fleur. You are one of the few people I can trust." My eyes widened and I stared at him. That name...I have met him before. Before... I worked with him?

" What case did we work on last?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

" The case that led to your knowledge of your diagnosis and helped you deal with the past your father left you with."

My father...? I started feeling strange. My head hurt and the room started spinning, there was this feeling that had me cornered and I froze as my mind flat lined for a moment.

Then there was nothing. I couldn't remember anything.

" Something wrong? What do you remember?" Looking up to meet his eyes, I said a single word that would throw me back into a world I had no idea I was ever thrown in in the first place.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

" Nothing." She really had no idea... I could see it in her eyes. There was also the fact that if she did have any memory of him right now she most certainly wouldn't react in such a... composed way.

I remembered how she reacted to the other times I had mentioned her father to her when she wasn't in the best state of being, and I was glad that she couldn't remember. There was no way that I wanted to be the reason that she cried the first day I came back into her life in awhile. It wasn't like I had known that it would take this long for her to get better. I was getting sick of being at home without her around.

Chances were that her lithium was working well... though it was a bit of an issue that her memory made her useless as any sort of help to the case, especially since it seemed to involve her mother. When matters of her mother had arisen while I conversed with Fleur, I had never learned anything about her. I found it odd that matters involving her long since passed on parental figure was related to a case a couple of years after a case with her father as a source connected to it. Something was up and had been going on for awhile. There was someone that knew both of her parents that had to be behind this or something. What was all of this really about? What went on to make them do this and have things go on like this in such an orderly fashion? It didn't make any sense and where did Jezebel really fit into it? Had she done something more that she hadn't told me about at some point or was it just a coincidence that I was over thinking?

The only thing I could think of suggesting to her or her wards was for her to temporarily be put off her medication. It wouldn't be very healthy for her, but I knew that if she wanted to help solve this case that she would do it. That just showed how determined she was. She had also done it before and there was no doubt in my mind that she'd do it again in order to save lives again.

Her sanity didn't really mean much to her and to me it seemed like she was confused and stuck in between the world of the real and the fake at the moment.

The case was definitely different this time. People were dying at a different pace and there seemed to be less than four people involved in the killings directly. It seemed like it was two or more people, but they were more careful than those that Jezebel's father had been involved with.

' In fact, the chances that he had ever even met these people is slim to none.'

I went back the next day around the same time and they didn't even bother talking to me before they led me to her room. She was sitting on her bed, staring at her wall.

" Good morning, Jezebel." It was odd and unfamiliar to be able to use her real name so casually, but it seemed to be the only one she would answer to normally.

Her eyes stayed on the wall, and I looked around before situating myself in a fold up chair that one of the wards had brought in for me specifically.

" What are you here to talk about today? I don't know why you're here. You already know that I don't remember anything."

" Yes, this is all true, but... do you want to?" I paid close attention to her reaction.

" Want to what? Remember?" She saw me nod, and sighed for a moment as she thought.

" Remembering will help me in more ways than one... well, it'll have more personal pros than cons than not taking my medication. It'll-"

" I request that you not do this just so you can see Susan and Bastien again." I cut in, catching her off guard, and she looked down like a guilty child that had just gotten caught stealing candy from a store, and stubbornly cast her eyes in the opposite direction.

" I know that you don't want to be here, and this case may even be able to help you to better understand why you're like this. Do you still want answers? Your father was involved in the other case... your mother seems to be related to the source of this case."

" My mom...?"

" Yes." That seemed to be all I really needed to say because she turned her eyes to me and when she met eyes with me I could see the same Jezebel that I had met almost 3 years ago now. To be honest, it was nice to see her softly shaped brown eyes go sharp again. She was thinking like her normal self... as normal as she can get.

" Okay."

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

This guy... he knew about my parents. Had I really worked with him before? Why don't I have it stored in a reachable part of my mind then?

The night before I had another vivid dream that went from horror filled and terrifying to... well...personal and even quite sexual. It made my face heat up whenever I looked at L because he reminded me of the guy I saw in my dreams that involved those explicit situations.

At one point when he had been trying to explain something to me, I zoned out, and parts of the dream came flooding back again. The worst part was when I snapped myself out of it, L's face wasn't very far from my own and I felt the color of my face turn red faster than it had the day before.

He gave me this look that made me worry that he could see what I was thinking and feeling, looking through me, and I didn't feel comfortable with it... and yet it was familiar to me somehow.

Maybe I could accept that I had just forgotten everything before now for a little while and believe him when he said that I had worked with him.

Except that before I talked about the case any further with him, I needed something answered and cleared up that only he could clear up.

" What was I to you?" His eyes shifted to me and I could feel my self-consciousness creep over me again.

" What do you mean?"

" I have a feeling you know." He thought about it for a moment before replying.

" That isn't relevant to the case."

" That doesn't mean that I don't want to know." I fought back stubbornly.

" If you listen to me now as I explain this case to you and how your mother might be involved... I'll tell you before I leave. Deal?" My answer was a simple and silent nod of the head.

" Alright," With a single glance from L, Watari handed me a folder." I must warn you of that folder's contents as they are extremely graphic. The case involving you and your father had four people behind it, but this one seems to be a bit more complex." Opening the folder I saw the first picture. Someone's blank eyes were staring up at me like fish eyes. Their dead and glazed over, looking at me through the windshield of a car with the upper half of their body forced over the dash board. Blood splotches could be seen in areas that suggested that the person's pelvis had been crushed or something and their wide eyes gave away their shock.

" That's Tina Fauller, 27, college student. She was wearing her seat belt during the crash... though only the part that went around her waist. The driver of the vehicle was never found and if you look at the picture you'll find that the car had been going so fast that when they braked, Fauller's body was cut in half by the seatbelt around her midsection plus the force of the brake." Gulping back my disgust, I set the paper down.

" Where does my mother fit into this?"

" I was getting to that." He muttered but continued on anyways.

" It would seem that your mother was once acquainted and even friends with this woman before she died. Do you remember that your mother was a college professor?" I shook my head. L seemed to notice my discontent with the pictures and quirked an eyebrow.

" How much have you forgotten?"

" Just about everything it would seem."

" Do you know about how you obtained the scars on your back?"

Searing pain shot through my head, and I frowned, and shook my head vigorously as tears threatened to fall. This happened just about every time I tried to remember anything too far back.

" Can you tell me? Do you know?" He nodded glumly.

" You told me during the time we were working together."

Over the next couple of hours he proceeded to explain my recent past as well as my more distant one and I found that the more I learned the more surprised I was that I had worked such a case with anyone.

" In conclusion, it would seem that you became more...vulnerable to such detailed pictures because you forgot that you had ever done work like this before. Let alone seen death."

" Is that really what happened to my parents? It sounds a little too... far-fetched."

" Some parts of your past are like that, if you've noticed." This was something I could believe. I mean, what could he possibly get out of lying to me?

" She's connected to these other men and women in some way too, right? Were they all students of hers or fellow teachers too? Are any of them relatives of mine?"

" You are the only Shanton left, Jezebel... and it is about time that I leave. I will tell the ward my plan so that you can contribute more to this case when you have your memories back."

" How much more could I possibly remember if my mother was killed when I was seven?"

" Oh, you'd be surprised... it took you awhile to notice the connection between the murders in Tokyo and a similar murder case in Marseille."

Marseille? I remember having some connection to that place at one point in time but I couldn't remember specifically what it was aside from what L... or rather Deneuve had explained to me. Having all my life's major details explained to me by someone I hardly believed I had ever known was hard to accept.

" By the way, do you still wish to know our relationship with each other?" I stiffened at those words and pictures flashed in my mind. If I had told him so much about my past willingly then...

" I think I have an idea." His eyes lingered on me for a little too long.

" I see. I will visit again soon. Take care of yourself, Fleur." And he left.

So... I had been in an intimate relationship with the best detective in the world? Did he still have feelings for me or had we broken up before I registered myself here?

The look he had given me before he left and what we had been talking about made me think that he and I were still in a relationship. I shivered and bit my lip before I stood up and looked around my room. There was a strong frustration and anger overwhelming and taking over everything else going on when I thought about it all...

Trudging over to the walls and tore down all the papers I could reach, ripping them into as many pieces as possible.

" None of this shit makes any sense." Dropping to my knees and leaning against the wall, I started sobbing quietly to myself.

What was going on?

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

This was insanity. She was obviously trying to remember, but the only thing she seemed to be able to remember were things before me. She wanted everything from her past explained as proof of my knowing her.

" Are you feeling well?" Watari asked and I sighed.

" Watari, why is it that I have this thought in my head that keeps telling me she will never be safe away from where she is now?"

" She just needs to take her medication regularly, L." Better yet why was I letting my emotions get the best of me? This only ever happened when Fleur was involved.

Walking around her room had apparently become something that I did on a regular basis when I couldn't think and Watari had even begun to leave multitudes of sweets in the pantry and frig there aside from the drinks that Fleur had left here almost as if it were a sign that she was going to return or had at least planned to some day.

For now, though, while she steadily regained her memories, I had taken it upon myself to finish as much of this puzzle as possible. I had taken it up in the first place specifically because it involved Fleur's mother, a woman that Fleur herself didn't appear to remember or know much about in the first place. 

Thing was that I knew I still had to try... for Fleur and the others that were dying because of whoever was behind this.

Earlier I had explained to Fleur that all this had been orchestrated by someone that had known her parents, particularly her mom, and it was highly likely that this person knew of the case that had saying something like ' I know what you did' or something like that. It was equally possible that they wanted revenge and had started this.

These victims of theirs had all died in incidences that revolved around 'trust' as they had all trusted their lives in the hands of someone that they knew. Someone else had been driving Tina's car. There was even a case involving a sky diving trial gone wrong. Aside from that the only other connection with all of them was that they all knew Fleur's mom in one way or another.

" Knowing her she'd just drink her beer after telling me that we could still work with what little we had in some way... and then she'd zone out." I muttered, thinking back to when Fleur was here working with me.

' If only she could remember.' I gritted my teeth together for a moment with that thought.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Several months passed and Deneuve and I were steadily making more and more progress in the finding of the person(s) behind all this. Not to mention that I was gradually having my memories return to me so that I could further help with the case. The only thing that was really getting in the way and making things difficult seemed to be my personal feelings for the genius detective that I never let show whenever he visited. Bastien and Susie were back and I was told that it was best I not make conversation with them unless it was absolutely necessary because otherwise... I could go insane.

That was making me get off topic, though. Deneuve was the one that I had been having those dreams about and I got scared and worried every time he got close or touched me because I was afraid that he could see how much I really knew and recalled about things other than that which pertained to the case. It wasn't easy either.

I didn't think it would be this difficult to lie to someone that had seen me without clothes before, but it was more difficult than trying to sew a shield around my brain in order to keep my innermost thoughts to myself.

Knowing that these people had died because they had trusted someone was a stab every time one was killed.

They were making these murders personal because my mother was a very trusting person and she too had died because she had entrusted everything to her husband... my father, and he had, in turn, killed her.

Why the Hell were they doing this? Wasn't it bad enough that I remembered every little tid bit of detail each and every single time I thought about my birthday?

' Wait a minute. How did they know what happened?' My eyes widened and I held my breath. Were these things going on just so that they could get a kick out of my suffering or was there a deeper message? I had killed my father in the end, so were they saying that I should hurry up and find them so that I could kill them too?

" They're pretty much just killing your mom over and over again so it might as well be a death wish." Bastien stated lucidly. His cold words were like the devil on my shoulder.

" Or maybe they just want to help you get through it." And Susie was my angel on the opposite shoulder.

" Deneuve, they know what I did." My voice shook and I attempted to breathe right again.

" I know and I noticed that there was something wrong with that because the only way they could have known was if they were there or if they had been warned of it happening... there are a few more other, more unlikely, possibilities, but it seems that the most likely answer was that they were there or nearby during the time and made the connection."

" Why would they just hold it in for so long?" I hope he didn't turn this against me considering I was holding in certain things as well. The reason why I was doing that was because I was afraid of getting all lovey-dovey and attached and then getting all paranoid and scaring him away... which in the end would cause him to stop visiting me here and I'd end up alone with no way out of this place.

" Maybe because they wish to take matters into their own hands." L suggested and it sounded like a good possible explanation to me.

" Did you bring any beer?" My absent minded question slid out before I could think the words.

" Actually..." He glanced at Watari who left momentarily and came back with a small ice chest, which he placed on my bed and opened to reveal familiar looking ice cold cans that I thought I'd never see again.

For a moment I could only stare at the beautiful sight before my eyes. Was that container filled with nothing but ice cubes and alcoholic beverages for my consumption alone or was it another cruel hallucination?

With a big smile on my face, I picked up a beer, and pulled back the tab. The sweet sound of fizzing and bubbling made me giggle and I took several gulps that put me back into the most amazing state of mind I've been in since I could newly remember.

Setting it down, I turned around and hugged L for several minutes.

" Thank you, Deneuve." I beamed.

" It was no trouble at all. You are able to legally drink in Tokyo now." He smirked, and I grinned, nodding after I let him go.

" Also, I was wondering if you wanted to move back in so that it would be easier for you to assist me in the case... the only thing is that if the time comes along that it seems to me that you need your medication..."

" If you ask me because you're worried about my sanity or well being then, yeah, I'll start taking it again because I've become so much happier since I stopped taking it."

" I'm glad to hear that." L admitted before turning towards the door.

" All of your things are still there and haven't been touched."

" Seriously? So all the clothes I made and things like that are still there and my mixes too? That's so awesome." I sighed contentedly and glided into the seat of the limo. Did I get driven everywhere like this?

" It's nice to be needed." Peering over at L sitting across from me, I took out another beer and started draining it.

" So, what's happened since I've been gone?"


	2. Ardin

Ardin

Hoc est verum et nihili nisi verum

Hard and heavy breathing, footsteps quickening in a desperate attempt to get away from the obvious gun carrying danger behind her.

Coming after her and gaining on her. Her mind's telling her not to look back to see if they were in the clear. She knew and her mind was screaming at her to get away, sending surges of adrenalin through her system, pushing her forward.

She couldn't afford to trip or fall now, and she doesn't. Instead, she makes a turn too narrowly and her shoulder slams itself against the concrete corner, sending signals of excruciating pain through her small frame, making her cry out sharply. The impact itself sends her twisting backwards, making it look as though she had ricocheted off the wall like a blitzed pinball. To make matters worse her back hit the solid ground, stealing the air out of her lungs and she rolls onto her good shoulder and curls up in the fetal position.

The woman struggles to gain her breath back as she's coughing and hacking. Her head hurts and her instincts tell her to get up and keep running until she was safe. Struggling, she gradually gets to her knees, but what she sees paralyzes her as she looks upon the threat she had been trying to escape in the first place.

She closes her eyes and waits for the sound of a shot to kill her, but when it does, she doesn't feel any pain, and she opens her eyes to find the man that had been chasing her falling to his knees and then his face. Another man walks up from behind him and shoots him again before motioning to face the woman.

Who has fainted.

When she wakes up, she notices that she's in a room, laying in someone's bed. None of it is recognizable in anyway. She also takes in her own appearance. It hurts to move and her shoulder, that had actually been skinned and even slightly cut was bandaged up rather well.

Suddenly remembering her activities earlier, she freaks out and almost falls out of the bed.

" Relax, Miss. You need to lay down and get more rest." The man that had saved her that night was in front of her with some food.

" I hope you aren't allergic to anything." He says, placing it on the small table beside the bed, and stepping back, letting her know that he means no harm. She shakes her head, and he smiles a little.

" You're at my house. This is a guest room that I hardly use. It was closer than a hospital, but I wasn't sure if you wanted to go there or not because I have no idea why you were running from the guy from before. I'm Will and I do a few things about medicines and the sort so you don't have to worry much at all." He moved back a bit more before apparently being reminded of something, and reached into his back pocket, pulling out a wallet that look very familiar to her.

" Speaking of names... I hope you don't mind but I took the time to check to see who you were to make sure that your being here wouldn't get me into trouble. It's nice to meet you, Miss Lariat."

" Thank you." From there she started coughing and decided that talking wasn't exactly the best thing for her to try doing.

" Are you alright?" His face showed concern.

" Do you need or want something to help you with your cough?" She looked at him and nodded. Lariat didn't have any other choice but to let this guy help her however he could.

He had, after all saved her life for no apparent reason aside from the fact that he was around and probably saw or heard one of them and followed behind. If she guessed at this guys occupation judging by his quiet stalking and what seemed like a pretty good salary, when she looked around the guest room, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that he was probably in the FBI or one of those types of organizations.

Lariat had nothing to worry about.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

A week later..

First had been Madrona, then Tina, Decima, and Lenora. That made four and about one a month. Other people that had been killed in that timeline were pushed out of the case's relevance since it didn't fit the MO.

Right now, I was sitting in my room with my butt balanced on the couch, looking out the window. Greeting me was the glorious night sky that seemed to have stars everywhere including the streets since they were as spotted with light as the sky itself. Thinking about it now I could hardly believe that I had ever forgotten this.

' Or him.' There was a sudden pang in my chest and I frowned and drank more of my recently made daiquiri before getting up and gathering the paper that Watari had dropped off by my request.

Tokyo was calling him Maverick and I noticed that what they were leaving out was the depth of the killings.

" That hardly matters to you right now. As much as you want to find this guy... you want to sort out your feelings with L. You have been having erotic dreams about him since you started losing memory of these days." It was Bastien. Susan would never use the term 'erotic' not only because she was younger but also because I knew her true personality.

I would know since I created her and was the only that had at one point actually believed in her existence.

" What I don't get is what you have to sort out. I mean, sure you have a case going on that's bound to bring back unpleasant memories, but- come on, have you seen the way he looks at you? Can I even use the word looks? I think it's more on the lines of leers... though I don't think he does it on purpose." In an attempt to ignore him, I looked at the time and found that I still had about three hours until I would get even remotely tired.

After all, it was only about four thirty in the morning and I was out of my usual surroundings of Tokyo... for the last two years at least.

The knock on the door interrupted my zoning and I sighed, almost threw Bastien a scolding glance, and opened the door.

" Hey, L, come on in." Leisurely walking back to my earlier spot with my drink, my eyes were forced blind to Bastien.

" You seem to have fallen back in to step with how things were before." Basically, I fell back into step with myself.

" When you don't cold turkey something and instead get lulled off of it slowly and steadily, it tends to have a better effect." I smirked and he took the time to stroll over to my couch and sit in his way. The positive recognition I felt seeing him there was odd to me.

" Just be glad he only suspects that your hiding your knowledge of your more intimate encounters." Ignoring him that time seemed to have pissed him off enough to make him leave the room.

" Are we alone?" Deneuve questioned and I blushed slightly. He had seen my eyes follow Bastien's exit.

" We were alone since you walked in in the first place."

" You know what I meant." He muttered, opening up a candy wrapper. Halloween had recently passed.

" I'm sorry." His head turned in my direction.

" Beg your pardon?"

" Halloween passed... and I forgot to get you something."

" That was six months ago, you were-"

" I know but it's messed up that the drug I had to take made me forget such important things... as trivial as they may seem to some." Silence followed my words for a moment and I twisted around to find him folding his candy wrapper.

" Cheesecake." It felt as though my ear had flickered at the word but I knew it meant that he wanted me to make him cheesecake as a way to make up for it.

" Strawberry?" He nodded and I smiled.

" So, did you find out more information or is this just a visit for a nice little heart- to- heart?" Shaking his head, he cleared his throat.

" There were no records of you ever talking to a staff member about your hallucinations or even leaving the room. May I ask why that is?"

" Because after awhile of refusing to take medication... I started talking to someone that was there even after I began to take my lithium." His interest appeared to be caught and he asked the silent question.

" Who?"

" Me." Daring to ghost a look to the kitchen table, I was punished with the view of a silhouette much like my own... they were me and I was them.

More like her.

" You talked to yourself to figure out what was wrong?"

" It was a bit of a strain, but yes."

" Is that one of the reasons you forgot so much while you were gone?"

" It's a possibility." I blatantly confessed.

" When we're alone. You know you can call me by my real name."Chuckling slightly, I walked towards the kitchen to get started on making that cheesecake.

" I had never gotten into the habit of calling you Lawliet, had I? If I'm not mistaken, I couldn't really think of calling you anything other than Deneuve. Is it a problem?" 

" Not particularly. Are you happy to be back?" Why didn't this feel awkward?

" Yeah, it feels nice to be able to wear whatever I want whenever I want again."

" I would hope so." The smile won this time, and I almost even giggled. His subtle humor was one of the many things I missed here. Shaking it off, I continued in my endeavor in making my apologetic strawberry cheesecake.

" I'm still very much in love with you, you know. I know you know." He whispered, and I paused once more, my chest began to hurt again.

" Yeah, I know." I smiled sadly before turning to him. L was still sitting crouched on the couch that faced the kitchen I had been trying to, in a way, hide in. He had his arms crossed over his knees and his head was resting on them... he wasn't looking at me and it felt like it was his way of saying that he wouldn't find me until I knew where I was. From him my eyes moved to the table where Jezebel sat with a Cheshire smirk and I looked back to him before my eyes dropped to the ground.

" I have the latest on the zombiepocalypse."

" Oh?"

" Yeah, turns out it's even farther away now. Sorry, but you're still stuck with me."

" I'm relieved." I heard his footsteps as he walked up behind me.

" Though I don't know what to do with you." It was my turn to be relieved as he hugged me to his warm person. I hadn't been hugged by someone since I left and as the strong wave of security from his protective embrace washed over me... I almost cried.

How had I forgotten this?

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Within the next month, a man by the name of Thanos Dard died. At first I thought it had nothing to do with it and then I berated myself for thinking that Jezebel's mother only had female friends. The only other thing that didn't seem right with this was that Thanos was too young to have really known the woman for he was about as old as Jezebel herself.

' Unless he was friends with Jezebel...;' I considered and felt a hit of something.

Was I jealous of a dead kid that might have known Jezebel when she was a child?

Nibbling on my thumb, I frowned slightly. This was a new challenge for me and if this was how it was for me than I could only guess how it must be for Jezebel right now. Lately, I had a feeling that she's been actually 'seeing' herself in another place and I was worried for her. This kind of hallucination was not only triggered by stress but she seems to be fighting some inner battle.

She already has so much going on right now, why does her mind work her to death like this? Considering her past, her father's genetically passed down mental illness, and all of these cases.

What kind of monster was I to bring this on her too? Just because I couldn't find the bastard doing this myself and I wasn't making it any easier that I wasn't telling her how long this case had really been going on and how many girls had really been killed. In truth this case had been going on for about a year rather than five months.

Fleur was the name of one of the first women that he killed. That was what gave the hint that it was possible my Fleur was involved.

Fleur, Amity, Eolande, Gazelle, Amani, Prudence, and Mina were the ones that I had left out until today. When I told her of them and explained things, she didn't seem angry at me at all and instead she sat there silently and thought painstakingly about something. Then she got up and walked over to her room, I heard the rummaging of drawers and papers, and she walked out with a familiar utensil.

A black marker and from there she listed all the names of the victims.

" He's telling a story." She whispered.

" Excuse me?" Was she being literal or just speaking in an unorganized manner?

" This guy... this killer... at first I thought that he was choosing them in a certain order, but I was wrong. This Maverick is a sociopath that probably knew my parents, like you said, but... he's using their names to tell a story." This didn't help me decide her level of sanity.

" Their names tell a story?" Her head moved in my direction, and her russet orbs flickered in my direction for a moment before turning back to her studies. Fleur had temporarily dislocated her mind while she was looking at me, I noticed, but then she started writing in words by the names.

" Yes, he's making it worse, Deneuve. He's communicating with us- me. If you look them up or know the meanings naturally you'll find that they are all (roughly) words that can be used to describe a person." She paused and took a sip from her drink.

" This guy is telling me a story about my mother. Madrona means mother-goddess, Fleur's meaning is obvious, Thanos is death- pretty literal if you ask me... so far he's saying that she was prey to a person like him or my father and that he knows who I am and what I did."

" How'd you move to that conclusion?" She drank more of her drink, a larger gulp, and proceeded as I patiently waited for her answer. All she did was just barely glance over at the dining table in her kitchen area.

" I am following myself." The red/blonde woman mumbled and if I were any other person I don't think I'd be able to tell what she was saying.

" She's here?"

" No. She doesn't exist." She readily snapped turning away from the table as though looking there caused her pain.

" Just try not to talk to them, please." Fleur laughed at this.

" Guess I'm an exception to the one's that talk to themselves in order to stay sane." Hearing this from her made me smile. She would be the person to find humor in this sort of situation. The next few minutes were silent ones.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

" I'm sorry." The words fell from my lips and I didn't turn to face him. I was too afraid of seeing myself there instead of him.

" For what?" Gave me the courage to turn back around.

" For not telling you how advanced my schizophrenia really was. If you hadn't walked in when you had that day..." I should've been crying right now, so why weren't the tears falling?

There was more silence and I was almost sure that she wouldn't tell me anything and that he'd say that I was right to be sorry.

" Remember the Kira case?" I was just listening now... both of me were.

" I was supposed to die near the end of it... and if you hadn't talked with me about it earlier on then I wouldn't be here speaking with you at this moment. You saved my life that day and I'm happier than you might think just knowing that I was able to return the favor." Now that was something I had remembered sooner than some of the other things.

" He wouldn't shut up." I whispered and I could feel myself fall inside as the flashback soaked my brain.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

She was remembering that day just like I was.

Her room was a mess. Blankets tossed into a pile and twisted up on her bed. Books, writing utensils, cups, bags of chips and other things, and cans/ bottles of beer and soda ranging from empty to never been opened covered chairs and her desk that she had used for her work at one time. She was talking to someone that I couldn't see while sitting on papers strewn out on the floor, pillows, and other things...I couldn't even find the floor. The papers on the walls were like the ones in her room at the asylum we took her from. I couldn't really understand what she was saying every now and again. She was screaming at me to close the door before they found her and forced her to kill herself after giving them the whereabouts of people working undercover for the CIA. She was scared that they would hunt those people down and kill them. Her eyes were looking everywhere and she started crying. Ten minutes later Jezebel was laughing for almost a minute straight after she had just been crying and told me that Susie had told her a joke asking me if I wanted her to explain it to me. When I asked her why she wouldn't leave her room she told me it was because Bastien had told her that if she stepped out of the room 'the oxygen would go away and suffocate her' and from there she started muttering things about another case. Questioning if she got any sleep she replied with ' when I sleep I give my blankets nightmares and my pillow a headache'. Before I knew it I was pushed out of the room with her saying that ' the air would stay for me and the caterpillars lost their scent' and from there I heard nothing except for her screaming ' Don't take Susie away from me, Bastien!!!She's just like me!' I stared at the door with my finger on my lip. This had to be the most fascinating yet frightening thing I had ever witnessed in my life.

 

 

" You shouldn't be sorry about anything, Fleur... I should have seen the severe changes." I admitted quietly. She could have gotten help sooner but I couldn't find it in myself to make her leave then or even after her suicide attempt.

" Was it Bastien?" Bastien was the one that seemed to be the shadiest of them from what I knew. Then again, the only one that they existed to was Jezebel.

" No." So, it was Susan.

" It was the other me. I only talked to her about these things, you know. She appeared the day I tried to kill myself. It was a sneak attack because I was originally just talking to myself in the bathroom mirror. Before I knew it I was standing in my room in front of myself with no other thought in my mind that I had to die. From what I remember the reason why was irrational and utterly...well." She laughed sarcastically and shrugged with a wry smile, so I knew the word was something on the lines of 'insane'.

" Do you know what might have triggered her appearance?" She was staring at me, no, through me.

" It doesn't matter right now. We need to get back to the case that's commencing as we throw around time. With what this killer knows they had to of lived close to us at the time and be close to them... friends with them even with a possible spare key." Might as well just drop it for later.

" What do you think of it?"

" They're like Light Yagami. My diagnosis of them is that they have ASPD or Anti-Social Personality Disorder. Glib, conning, shameless, pathological lying, narcissistic, you know by now the type, I'm sure." Yes, the Kira case had been the most time consuming and one of the most difficult of all the cases I've acknowledged in my life as a detective.

Which was just about my whole life.

" They aren't insane and it wouldn't be safe for someone like me to be around them because with a lack of finding another way of saying it they ' get off on causing others pain and stress'. This guy has the potential to send me back to that asylum institution place." I picked out her voice pausing on the words 'asylum' and 'institution'.

" Have you ever communicated with someone like this before?" During the Kira case I had made sure that my talking with her had been individual and even secret at times. I didn't want Kira to know of her and find a way to kill her too. I didn't believe she'd come up here anyway and would instead find a way to win the game... which we had done together then.

" At least once." What were the chances that she had only encountered one once and that that one was the one doing all of this?

" How many do you remember?" We could start there and move up.

" I don't remember his name but he used to live next door. He wasn't exactly a friend of my family's but he was really nice and often came to party's that my parents set up. Barbecues and the sort, you know? He was sort of odd and was always talking to me and dad as if he knew something was particularly off about him... I don't know why he would talk to me, though." An image of a young Jezebel with big brown eyes and longish blonde red hair hurrying around with a teddy bear popped into my mind.

" Maybe he had a Lolita Complex. I'm sure you were cute as a child." I smiled, and as I had hoped, she pursed her lips together and narrowed her eyes at me.

" That's irrelevant... I'm going to go take a shower and get a cup of coffee. If you find anything before then you can come find me." Fleur scolded lightly whilst spinning in the other direction and waltzing towards the door. I tilted my head to the side.

" Even if you're in the shower? How would that work when you lock your bathroom door behind you. Whether I'm taking one with you or not." That made her pause and she was silent before she looked over her shoulder at me and I felt my eyes widen ever so slightly at the sultry smile she shot at me.

" Is that a request to join me, Lawliet-kun?" Her smile widened as my eyes almost popped out of my skull. Was she seriously-

" Just kidding." She teased before continuing out the door. I let out the breath I didn't realize I had been holding and turned to my computers. Reminding myself almost incessantly that I needed to get back to work.

" I set myself up for that one." I grudgingly muttered to myself while I attempted to find something.

' Only one actually lived in Tokyo originally... how did they all end up in random parts of this city? Is it his way of saying that he knows where she is or is he just following along with where the first victim was placed? Do they use aliases if they took plane or train rides ? This much patience to go to the other side of the world just to gain the trust of and then kill a woman... and furthermore... how did they got the body back to Tokyo?' Some of them were easy to tell because their bodies were cut up or folded up like a frozen acrobat. The folded ones were the most troublesome to figure out since the coroners and forensic pathologists had to dismember them in order to find out if they were killed in another way. There was no pattern in where or how they killed them.

' What else do they have in common? What relates these victims aside from them all having once been friends of Jezebel's or her mothers and all of them popping up in Tokyo, Japan? Not gender, hardly age, Their names tell a story together.' I briefly checked Jezebel's room camera and found that she was still in the shower... or at least the bathroom.

" Other relations don't matter yet. Plus, it would seem that he likes to play with names and..." What I read on some of the other victims was something I somehow hadn't seen the first half a dozen times.

' A majority of them had been sexually assaulted. Fleur's not going to like this.'

When she got back and I told her her only words were.

" Before or after death?" Her clothing sense had changed again as I noticed that she had gone back to wearing loose and somewhat plain clothing. I could only make a prediction on how she could wear an oversized shirt with light and dark blue stripes that had sleeves ending at her elbows and... were those my pants?

" The first several were before and the last few were after." I explained, forcing myself to watch her facial expressions carefully. Her face was stoic and her eyes stayed piercing as she attempted to sort things out.

" He's getting worse."

" How do you know that they are male?" She shrugged.

" I don't but it is the most likely case since 5% of the male population have ASPD while less than 1% of the female population have it. Anti-social personality disorder in itself is a very rare thing to have in the first place, and I feel that we can assume that it is a guy doing this until we have evidence saying otherwise." This explanation fit so we moved on.

"I was originally thinking that we could just find the flights during those times whether it was to or from Tokyo to the necessary places like France, Germany, and also we'll need to consider going from one plane to another. If he did that we could follow him because he'd have to use the same name for those flights..." I was going on and on about it, rambling a loud as I thought it out.

" Can you get someone on that? I want to look at the crime scenes myself like last time and I need you with me to make sure I don't wander off and get hit by a car or something. Sanity purposes." She mumbled before slipping on some shoes.

" Are you wearing a pair of my jeans?" I had never seen her in my clothes before, which was really saying something with how long she and I had been working together and also 'together'. She was wearing several of her belts with them. A plain black one went through all the loops to hold it in place around her waist, a larger purple one with bullets decorating the belt strap hanging from one loop diagonally, and the last was an orange on going through two or three and it had pink and black studs going in a checkerboard pattern. The outfit didn't make her body look androgynous at all and I noticed that when she turned her back to me that the material seemed to sink in order to show off the curve of her back underneath.

Jezebel looked down at her outfit and smiled up at me sheepishly.

" Yeah, I find them to be very comfortable and warm." Those pants were big on me and made her younger and adorable.

" We should go to the closest one we can get to and not have to worry about police interference. " Walking next to me out the door, we got into the limo and my female companion rested her legs on my lap, resting her back against the cushion behind her. Watari had already started the engine and we were driving off. I gave up on trying to sit right and instead placed a finger to my lips, pushing my lower one from side to side. 

" The photos aren't good enough for you?" I lightly jeered, and she shrugged, and looked out the window.

" I like being there myself. Besides, you know about as well as I do that even CSI agents and that sort miss stuff all the time. They've become quite shallow with their work as of late."

Fleur never was one for people and she seemed to hate organizations and large groups the most. Could be part of the reason her hallucinations involved a little girl and a gay guy... what didn't make sense was her most recent one of herself. With how she referred to her mirror hallucination, it was pretty obvious what she thought of her.

It would appear that her feelings about herself were contradictive and complex. This wasn't going to help the case and could even hinder it or make it backfire if we weren't careful. In order to occupy my time as we drove on, I wondered about this 'Maverick' characters next victim and if she/he had already fallen for whatever trap he could set up at the time. The only way he could gain their trust if he could get it before they even met or some situation of that kind.

Peering over at my partner of many names, I noticed something was off with her as her head was facing her lap and I could feel her shake somewhat.

" Are you feeling well?" When she looked up, her face held a healthy blush and she was biting the inside of her lower lip. Her eyes didn't meet mine and instead were looking at something else.

" Fleur?" When I glanced down, I realized that my right hand was making light circles against her pant covered calf, and it was then that I knew the problem. Her skin had always been sensitive to the softest of touches.

" I apologize. I was thinking about the case and zoned out... much like you tend to do." About then the vehicle stopped and we got out right outside the site of where the body was found.

" Why are you getting out?"

" There's no one around let alone awake at this hour and people wouldn't recognize me unless they had seen me before... which no one around here has done." With a smile, I followed her and stopped to watch her work. She seemed to enjoy field work about as much as working at home.

" Now this is... Fleur's site, correct?" When I looked at her as she uttered these words, it was obvious that saying such words were foreign and odd to her. Even as I nodded, this place seemed to almost haunt her with its name alone.

" You're right about your earlier hypothesis... at least that's how I feel since it feels right to me as well. About the guy bringing them here because he wants me to know he knows where I am. He's gloating." She was only half with me and as the seconds ticked by her mind ticked away with them.

" That's part of his profile." I murmured to remind her, and she absentmindedly nodded as she surveyed the area on foot.

" He's gloating and it pisses me off because I don't know where the real scene of the crime is-" Her eyes went a bit larger and she turned to me.

" But I can find out where each one of them is... everyone that went on in France, at least. Deneuve, think you can find out where the other one's were? I don't think it should be too difficult for police to find crime scenes missing a body." Fleur joked, stretching her limbs and making her way back to the limo.

" From there we can find out where they really died... do you have those flight names?"

" Maybe." I said, using one of her most trademark words against her and she pouted with puppy eyes.

" Don't be so mean, Law-kun." She mockingly baby voiced after we got resituated in the limo.

" I've been worse." I wasn't looking at her while I said those words. My mind went somewhere else- to a different time even- whist I let those words slide from my lips.

" I know. Or rather... I recall a few of those occasions." Blinking back to the 'now', I rolled my head in her direction, examining her facial expression.

" Do you now?" My eyes locked on hers and then traveled to her lips before I glanced away. As wonderful as having our relationship go back to how it had been after the case with her father and before this new one sounded, I didn't want to make things more difficult for this delicately minded woman. Having her back was enough for now and if she ever wanted to have things progress at some point during the case then I wasn't going to oppose it.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

" Do you now?" For the second time while we were in here together, I felt my face heat up because of him. My back scooted closer to the seat behind it as I tried to distance myself from his piercing dark eyes. The familiar thrill that coursed through me whenever he gave me that look, reared its face and stayed for a time... even after he had looked away from me.

The ground of the limo appeared to be particularly interesting for awhile until I had looked up, and moved closer to L. Hugging from the side and burying my face in his shoulder for a moment, I whispered a 'Thank you' and stayed there for a moment before kissing him on the cheek.

" Thank you for trying to keep my mind safe from itself." I added and stayed snuggled up to his arm until we returned to the building I had become fond of calling home once more.

" I think I'm going to have something to eat and go to bed. Morning will be here soon." And with that, I headed to my room after asking Watari to bring a meal to my room... with a few side orders of sweets of various sorts.

It was difficult to get to sleep that night with people trying to explain nonsense to me. Particularly when one was myself.

With how a usual case like this worked, I was surprised when they didn't kill around the time I had predicted. In fact, they hadn't killed for even two... and then three months after that. The worst yet best possible thing had happened at this time.

Maverick had ceased his monthly murders.


	3. Bellatrix

Bellatrix

Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto

Before when I found myself staring at the ceiling, I was waking up from having fallen asleep talking to Deneuve which was totally different from the hard nights of the past three months now.

Licking my lips idly, I sighed, and stood up, making my way to the other side of the crazily patterned neutrally colored room. Unfortunately, I only got about halfway before I was cold and so went back and pulled my blanket around me before trudging out the door.

When I really thought about it, that room held memories that a multitude of people would rather stay away from to protect their minds or whatever they called it. Personally, I saw that potential seizure causing room as a bubble that held all my worst moments intact. A room that I needed in order to keep my hold on those memories this time and find a way to make sure that I don't make the same mistake again.

My hallucination of myself was sitting on the couch, her eyes moved to me and she smirked and looked in the direction of the covered windows, the only evidence of it being morning was the thin stream of light peeking through the sides of the curtains. To me, it was a bad omen to keep my blinds open in the morning and let the light in simply because it reminded me of what my father told me.

" You fall asleep at night and they'll find you and kill you!!! You were born to die sometime after me! You hear me, child?! They will find you before you can do anything to stop them. They are searching for you in the end!!! You are the ultimate sacrifice!!!"

 

 

I flinched, and... Jezze (to better distinguish us) started chuckling. She barely ever spoke a word during these past months. The only time she ever made a sound was when something bothered me or when she heard me mentally acknowledge that her presence alone made me uncomfortable.

Which made me hate my schizophrenia and her even more. So, rather than stay here and take mocking from an illusion, I walked passed her into the kitchen and gathered a recently made cheesecake and two plates and forks, balancing the plates and utensils on top of the plastic lid of the sweet treat, and moving them over to the other side of the counter.

In all honesty, cheesecake was the only sweet thing I knew how to make, but I did have a few things that I kept with me that I could add.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

I was looking over the photos the coroner had taken of the bodies again. One woman had been killed by being battered to death.

' Probably the only thing he could do at the time. This also makes it more likely that this person is, in fact, male.'

The sound of a door opening and then closing followed by the dragging of something, made me turn my head to see Fleur standing there with a container of something with plates and forks, while she herself was bundled up in a blanket.

" Fleur, is something wrong? You are normally asleep at this hour." It was something odd, even for her, she detested sleeping at night, feared it thanks to psychological attacks from her father. To this day, remembering such things about her past made me angry. Then I glanced at the container

Was that cheesecake? I had never seen her make anything else before. She walked towards me and placed it on the table next to me. Then while holding her blanket to her frame with her underarms she took off the lid. It was strawberry cheesecake.

" Your favorite, right?" Her voice sounded strained, tired, and her eyes appeared heavy, but she was still giving me a smile that reached her brown orbs. Had she been getting enough sleep?

" Yes, thank you, but you don't look well." She pulled up a seat and moved it closer to my own, resting her head on my shoulder for a bit before replying.

" Lately, it hasn't been easy for me to get to sleep. I really don't get it. It's so annoying." Fleur sighed.

" I see, so you came out here in order to find out if you could get more work done instead?" Removing her head from my shoulder, her hair hid her eyes.

" I'm a bit more selfish than that, Law-kun." She pouted, and dished up a piece for herself. Thinking about her words, I smiled.

" You're more awake than I had first thought, then. You'd only help me at this time of day if you were really tired, wouldn't you?"

" I love helping you." I listened closely as I began to devour my own piece. Starting with the strawberry.

" The thing is that I will only help you for as long as my patience for lack of sleep will allow and since I've been having these difficulties for months now..."

" I understand. Why didn't you say something earlier?"

" Don't ask me questions you already know the answer too, especially right now. You know how much it bugs me." Her childish reaction was one I had really missed. Picking on her when she was tired was just too fun and easy.

" Yes, I know, but I love your reactions." She brought her blanket up higher carefully after temporarily placing her half eaten piece on the desk.

" Are you that cold? I could turn on the heater." My suggested was faced with her shaking her head. Sighing, I too set down my plate, and wrapped my arms around her, moving her into my lap. Her legs she was facing her chair, but I could tell she was cold.

" What are you wearing underneath that? You could have at least changed or put on warmer clothes before coming out here."

" I didn't think about that before coming out here." She defended before going on.

' But you thought about cheesecake?' Sounded like something she'd do.

" He lives in Tokyo right now. I think he's been following me. He was probably on that plane while I was heading here... for all I knew he could have been seated in front of or behind me. I don't get why he stopped killing though, right out of the blue. Doesn't make any sense." Her mumbled rant was followed up by her rubbing the side of her face against my shoulder, snuggling closer.

" You really shouldn't be think about things like that before going to bed." Speaking to soon, I saw that she had already fallen asleep.

' This was bound to happen sooner or later. She's so stubborn.' Holding her closely I stood up, carried her into my room, and laid her down on the soft bed. Deciding a break wouldn't hurt I cuddled up next to her, hugging her to me while bringing up the covers.

" You're a cruel person, Fleur." I whispered into her hair before falling asleep few minutes later.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

" It's all your fault! If you hadn't killed dad than those people never would have died!" Jezze yelled. We had fights like this in my dreams and nightmares often.

 

 

" That's not true! He just would've found other people to kill and ruin the lives of. If I hadn't killed that man then the one doing this would probably never get caught!"

 

 

" Are you really that sure of yourself!"

 

 

" Do you really think that L and I can't do this?! I don't need you. I never needed you here! In fact, I never needed any of you! If it wasn't for you I never would've had to leave Lawliet." I threw back spitefully. Jezze grinned.

 

 

" Speaking of L... you do know that it's only a matter of time before you lose all your sanity and become useless to this case and slow him down. You'll become dead weight soon and then... who knows, maybe he'll realize it and get rid of you. Put you back in that institution with the other crazy people like you."

 

 

" He wouldn't do that! He loves me!" Crying this out, I heard it echo around us. We were alone, so it was just Jezze and I in some psychedelic looking world with no ground and no sky. Colors flew and blended around us and I really didn't like it.

 

 

" L knows I hate it there!"

 

 

" He also knows you belong there. Which is stronger?!" She fought back ruthlessly, even flippantly.

 

 

My eyes flashed open, and I hugged what was already in my arms tightly. I figured it could only be Deneuve, so I didn't really care as I buried my face in his shoulder more and started to cry.

" Having nightmares again?" Had I woke him up? His voice was mildly groggy but it got like that sometimes when he wasn't tired. Being so lachrymose and crying on him was still embarrassing, even after all these years.

" Just couldn't pretend you were asleep, could you?" Sometimes I couldn't help but blurt out these childish things and Lawliet chuckled shaking both his frame as well as mine.

" You were flinching in your sleep almost violently." Then his voice changed." I got worried." Great, now I felt bad.

" I got into a fight with myself."

" She only looks like you, Fleur-chan." That was new and it made me smile and it also made me feel better.

" Fleur-chan? Since when did you start calling me that?"

" Since now. I find the blend of Japanese and French salubrious and it suits you well." L murmured into my hair. He seemed awfully comfortable.

" Do you want to spend the whole day in bed today?" I shook my head defiantly and rolled, with my blanket, away from his warm body.

" We need to get more of this case solved. Hopefully before he starts killing again. Plus I'm sweaty and need to take a shower." Then I sprinted to my room to take said shower and change into something warmer because what I had on before were a pair of black boxer shorts and a blue camisole.

I needed to find some way to get that pointlessly bothersome nightmare out of my head.

Peeling off my sweaty clothes, I turned on the warm spray of water and began thinking about the case again. He was obviously playing with us and no matter what he did, added, or changed during the next bit of killings he did none of it was going to really tell us much-if anything- about Maverick.

' Okay, he killed those people before because they knew my mom somehow. He himself knew my mother and had maybe kind of liked her but not romantically because he is incapable of feeling things like love, joy, and all those good feelings. His brain is numb to the things that would stimulate those feelings. The reason why he raped and killed them and then switched to killing and raping them was because he found that his mind demanded something more in order to... get off on what he was doing. All he did was see what happened all those years ago, find out about the solved case in Tokyo that I work with L on, and then... while I was in France decided to take my past on a joyride in order to fuck with me when I finally got out of the institute. Wait... did he even know I was in the institute that my dad had gone to all those years ago or had he just stayed here? That would make more sense. So, there are still some things that this guy is unaware of and doesn't need to know. He doesn't need to know anything more than what he already knows. My mother was a college professor so he's either an old student or a fellow professor. If had, at one point, been a teacher to her they'd be a bit too old for all of this moving around and would get tired after awhile. It fits most that he was another professor. The times of death fit it all perfectly. Several of the people that he killed had either been students or friends of my mother's and when you put in each time of death it would make it look like they were, in fact, a college professor that doesn't work a multifarious amount of hours. For him to accomplish such a task as to find out about and get close to the student(s) he was after then being a teacher at one college or another would be almost required... and with this, it leads up to Maverick being a college professor that was successful enough to be able to work for varying amounts of time at different schools in order to keep up with his schedule.' Gritting my teeth, this case was making me become more and more bedeviled with each bit of information we gained. It was like a jigsaw puzzle I didn't like the resulting picture of.

' The bastard had so much time in that aperture between my being seven and when he started that he has everything necessary to toy with us already being set into motion. I hate criminals like him with that wretched perspicacity of a person's weakness, no matter who the person is.'

" He's a puppeteer with years of practice that sees people as nothing but a sea of puppets and victims." I hissed to myself as I shot off the water and dried my hair with a towel. As I looked in the mirror, I frowned. I had lost a bit of weight in that horrid place. Almost snorting at myself in the mirror, I wrapped a cloudy towel around my frame, and staggered out of the bathroom.

To trip on the blanket I had cosigned to oblivion earlier. The thing I wasn't expecting was for me to not get a roundhouse kick from my floor. Having something break my fall was definitely something that happened on rare occasion. It turned out that the blanket was more bundle-y in some places and, thankfully, where my head landed was one of them. Even if I had hurt myself, the only thing I would be able to actually think and focus on was that it was vital that I tell L of my newly gathered mental findings.

Standing back on my feet and getting dressed I grimaced when I learned my right arm had not been so lucky. There was a throbbing pain that, after a short time, began to plague my nerves. I had dealt with worse so this should have been nothing, right?

That 'optimistic' thought punished me by choosing then to remind me of just how bad those 'worse' pains were, and I winced but kept on my way to where L was. The closer I got, the more pain I felt.

": Fuck.:" Too busy cursing, I forgot to keep walking and stopped, trying to think of a way to make this mind numbing pain go away.

" You going to come back anytime soon?" Visibly following my heart in near flight, my head threw itself in L's general direction.

" Deneuve, you almost scared the schizo out of me." Okay, I could've used better words.

" I didn't mean to scare you at all. Are you having phantom pains again?" Was I crying? How could he tell?

Moving as if to not alarm me again (even if the first one was accidental), he carefully removed my right hand from my left. Without seeing or feeling it myself, I had been subconsciously rubbing my wrist in an attempt to rid it of my memories pain.

Subsequently recognizing the au courant* sensation on my wrist my eyes adjusted to reality once more and I found the cause to be L... pressing his lips to the inside of it in a way that felt both soothing and somewhat arousing. He was going along the line just under my palm and I could steadily feel my face get hot and I bit my lip on nervous impulse. I knew it wasn't meant to make me react the way I was, but it was the same as when we were in the limo earlier. In truth, he was trying to get rid of my frequent troubles.

" How was your shower? Were you able to get a lot of thinking done?" Not moving my head from his observant gaze, I felt m eyes widen after he let go of my temporarily imprisoned hand.

" You just reminded me. Listen to this." Rushing into the main room and selecting one of the remaining pieces of cheesecake (in order to regain my senses), I explained to him, while munching away, the collection of thoughts I had thrown together.

" My guess is that he's also a college teacher. He had all those years to plan this out before we even knew of his existence. He chose the time he did to start this obscene and unfair game because he wanted all of our attention to be on this case like it was with our last one."

" This makes sense... Maverick is letting us know that he's just as much of a threat to Tokyo as they are and more because of how much access he appears to have to other parts of the world." When he pressed his thumb to his lower lip, I almost smiled outright because such acts from him reminded me that this was Lawliet, The World's Greatest Detective, and in remembering that I had newfound confidence that we would be able to get rid of this monster.

Feeling bad that I had for even a second doubted Lawliet, I frowned and went looking for a beer.

" See, he's childish, just like Kira was. We could beat this one since he obviously doesn't have some Shinigami hidden up his sleeve. This guy's egocentricities are what will get him caught because he acts out for our attention." The look L gave me stopped me from continuing.

" From how I see it, Fleur-chan... he's acting out for your attention. Killing people your mother knew. There isn't a doubt in my mind that he knows the way you are in a case with how we solved it. If this man is like Kira in any way... it is that he targets one true person in all of this while using the others as pawns, but he's different in one exemplary way as well." He walked over to me and picked up the last strawberry on the cheesecake, popped it into his mouth, and continued his explanation.

" Kira wanted to kill me and anyone else standing in his way so that he could ' become the New World's God'. So that he could continue to kill more criminals in order to accomplish his goal. Now, Maverick on the other hand... he picked out the people he did to make you suffer and whether he plans on killing you or not is undeterminable as of yet." That's when I reminisced through the past months when there were no murders and I was looking for something in my room.

" Do you know where my Ipod is?" It may have seemed like a random answer, but there was a high chance that I forgot to bring it up with L at the time.

" No, I put it back in your room a few months ago. Why?" My brows pushed themselves together.

" Because I haven't been able to find it."

" Well, no one else but Watari is here that could have possibly taken it and I think we both know that he would never do such a thing. Do you think you misplaced it somehow?" Behind me someone was giggling and I had definitely heard that very same laugh come from myself before. Looking behind me I saw it was Jezze. She knew who was behind this meaning that my guess was probably right.

" He knows where you are and could've killed you but instead he stole something very precious to you. He's mocking you and you have no clue where he is. Not even the hint of a guess aside from him living somewhere in Japan's Kanto region. How could you have possibly missed him?" This was hard for me to block unlike most of the other things, especially since it was Jezze saying it and she was the one that thought almost exactly the way I did except for one thing.

She believed more in what my father told me. She thought I was a sinner that failed God and deserved to die and go to Hell if I didn't repent sooner or later.

" I know that you've thought about it too. You used to even believe in it too. That your solving of that case caused by your father was the final betrayal to your father and his ideals and beliefs."

' Father was insane and deceptive.' Choosing to mentally fight back seemed to be the best idea so that L didn't think anything was wrong. I didn't like it when he worried for my sake.

" And you aren't? Have you forgotten already that you are talking to a mirror image of yourself?"

' I am hardly anything like you and you are nothing but a look alike. You don't even exist in the real world.'

" I don't have to exist in the real world to have an effect on this case, Jezebel, and you know that. II only have o exist in your world. I have helped you in this case, haven't I? Are you not going to tell Lawliet of your hypothesis?" Sighing, I glanced over at L, who was typing away at his main computer, searching for any names that could be linked together by school. Using the teacher names throughout the past year and a half.

' Later on. Leave me alone. I never asked for your help.'

" Maybe not out loud, but your progress in this case told me that I could lend a hand... if only a little."

' You're the one that corrupted Bastien. Stay away from him, Susie, and myself. We can solve this case without you just like the last one. If this God knew I would've betrayed my father in the end then why did he even allow me to be born?' Jezze was silent after that.

" I checked all the flights and I was unable to find any one name that fit with all of the flights, but take a look at this." Hacking away at his keyboard with a half eaten chocolate bar in his mouth, L brought up the lists side by side on three of the computers that were lined up just as horizontally so that there would be enough room.

" If you look at these lists as they are there are no similarities... but if I were to do something like this..." He pressed a single key and I watched as circles appeared around one name on each of the thirteen lists.

" The first name on the list farthest on the right is Liam Monthwrell and the others all have at least five of the letters from that first one in common. Let's not go out on a limb yet, until we have a good idea about the others..." Voice trailing off, he peered over at me, and I nodded in agreement, my mind already twisting around the letters of every name to find a possible fit.

With lips curved negatively, I massaged the bridge of my nose before sighing.

" Watari, can you bring in something like a chalk board or something of that sort so Fleur can physically write these out, please?" A few minutes after this announced request, Watari came in with a transparent board, pushing it through the door. I ran over to get it from him, thanking him with a grateful smile and a 'thank you'. With that, Watari exited the room.

" He's such a nice man. Makes me wish I had grown up with a father figure like him. You're pretty lucky, Law-kun." My soft mumble did not go unheard, and he cocked his head to the side, thoughtfully.

" I suppose... you're right."

" Don't take advantage of a good man's kind soul for doing such shall make you suffer in the end." And then I snapped out of my little spell, and began to write out the names and the letters from all the names. There was Liam Monthwrell, Henri Maww, Ronald While, Neil Moore, Waren Hymn, Lore Aimes, Eli Hall, Owen Almir, Rail Oaks, Larry Wilk, Arron Mieron, Ian Merrow, and finally William Elm. The letters I got from that were a, e, i, o, l, m, n, r, and w.

" You should probably check those schools for these names."

" I am... working on doing just that." He muttered, multitasking between eating a donut and going through the files of those schools.

" Even 'if' there were victims that were things other than students and fellow teachers he would definitely use a job at a school nearby as a cover- up.-"

" And since he travels so often he could very well work with language arts." L agreed, seeming to naturally be able to think the same thing as me.

" Precisely, now I need to find out what there could be." I said mostly to myself.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

" He's not a teacher, but he is connected to those schools. It would seem that those languages that he knows are being used to counsel rather than teach." About an hour or so of hacking and tacking away at the computer had led me to these findings. Unfortunately, Jezebel reacted more severely and... personally to this news.

" They let that sick monster talk to their students...?" She couldn't seem to be able to grasp the concept.

" You said yourself that they were good actors when it came to pretending to understand and feel for other's just to build up trust... and then demolish it... such can definitely be said about those victims of his. The question is how did these people not notice the connection?"

" Because he waited a whole month." Fleur's eyes were still scanning the board she had drawn on with lines everywhere, making me momentarily flashback to her room in the institution when it had those papers everywhere. Of course, she had torn them all to shreds in the end, but I did still wonder from time to time what she had seen in them. The patterns..." Watching her for a few minutes, I really contemplated how a mind like hers thought the way that it did and what made it different. Truly different.

" I hope you know that I can see your reflection on this board as if it were a mirror and that I can almost feel your thoughts. Don't look into things you could never have a true understanding of. My sanity slowly deteriorates along with my mind even as we speak. Our realities are two totally different things as we can both see things that the other cannot from time to time, you see." Her language was tossing itself around slightly and I think that even she noticed it because she cleared her throat and gave me a knowing glance.

" I'm sorry." This familiar feeling was like that of a child being scolded even if she didn't mean it in that way. Without thinking, I often let my curiosity get the better of me and this time... it could've ended badly.

" You wouldn't be the first to look at me that way and that wouldn't be the first time you have looked at me that way either." She chuckled lightly to herself at that memory as if she were proud of herself for remembering it in the first place. It was either that or the memory made her smile all on its own. I hoped it was either the latter or a mixture of both.

" There's a difference though... in the way you look at me and the way others do and have. You look at me with pure, innocent curiosity, fascination, and a hungry mind. Others do because they pity me and because they want to control me, thinking they know better than I and that I will just hurt myself more staying the way I am without some medication hindering my abilities." That brought something back.

" Fleur... if you do end up losing yourself again and I request you go back to taking your medication... we are going to pause this case, in a way, for awhile, until you get better enough again. That, of course, is only going to happen if you think that this case is worth it. I will not hold anything against you, however, I do wish for you to stay yourself. I don't wish to lose you again." It was my turn to be selfish.

' If I can help it... I don't want you to leave again... being around you for as long as I had and have I found you've become a part of my life that I hate to be without.' Is what I thought but didn't say. This was obviously not the time for it and I needed to focus. Plus I knew that these words would only hold her mind's abilities back if I spoke them a loud. Instead I asked Watari to bring up a new tray of desserts and snacks.

" Him moving everywhere... these schools. They could potentially be signs that he is unable to hold down a job even though he gives a presentable and charming image... very much like the desceased Light Yagami, if you told me right. If memory serves me right, he tried to talk me out of working with you once before or something or other. Thanks to my unisex name and voice scrambler, he was unable to tell my gender." Being sure that at least a small part of that was for me to hear, I looked over her progress and saw her 'pondering face'.

Hearing the rather harsh and/or sharp sound of a marker hitting a board, I peeked over my shoulder at her and I found her using deduction, scratching out every letter that didn't seem to fit with her. The s of every name that had one in it was scratched out, so were what seemed to be any letter that didn't connect to anything of importance in her mind.

Then while she was busy muttering to herself, I was able to observe her physically freeze in her spot with half lidded eyes, and I knew where she was, and nibbled on the side of my index finger.

When she suddenly widened her eyes and started to make lines and write more letters at a nearly feverish pace, I figured she must have had something click in her mind of a time before now. Something was wrong though, her face appeared to be that of someone berating themselves for not knowing the name in the first place or at first glance.

" I should have known." The young woman hissed at herself as she stepped away from the board afterwards. The name she had configured from her deducting stuck out

' Wilhelm Larmont'

Before I could even begin to type the name into the search engine, she stopped me. Something was very wrong.

" What is it, Fleur? You're shaking." She couldn't seem to tear her eyes from the board because of what looked like fear.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

That name... why?

Why hadn't I seen it before? Why hadn't my mind told me everything sooner? Was this why I was still unable to do all those normal things that I should've been able to do after the case with my father two years ago?

Was he the reason I feared sleeping at night? Clips of times when he had shown up at my family's doorstep or shown up at a party my parents were throwing popped into my head randomly, each one taunting me, stabbing me. That narcissistic smirk that I almost always saw him with.

It took me until now to remember the real reason my father had killed my mother that day. That and the reason why I had had no other choice but to fight my father as well. It took until today for me to remember that I had not been the only one there that day that had seen the actions that led me to being alive and in the situation that I was in at this moment.

Why just now? I should have been able to recall this along with all those other things. All that pain and suffering. That fight or flight burst of energy and instinct that had cause me to accidentally kill my father.

Everything.

Wilhelm Larmont was the man that was responsible for every bit of it. He had come to the door to talk to my father and I heard the whole conversation. The things that Larmont told him in the 'security' of the room right next to the one I had been in. I had heard every single word of their conversation.

" Hello, Mr. Shanton, how have you been? There is something I need to tell you. The police found a witness and I don't know what they said, but the police now know who the people responsible are. I wanted to obey God so I felt that I should tell you that your life as a servant of God is in danger of being destroyed."

 

 

" You know of what God tells me and God's other chosen ones?"

 

 

" Yes, and I have informed them of this as well. Told them that they need to be very very careful with their next sending of the angels." Apparently, he had been watching us and knew enough about what my father 'saw' to be able to manipulate him into thinking that the only thing he could do was find the closest 'angel' he knew of and send them. Even if it was earlier than he had planned to send her.

 

 

" Thank you for this warning, Wilhelm. I shall tell God of your good deed and let him know that you belong with God after you pass. Just like the rest of us. I am in debt to you and see our being neighbors as a message from God." The crap my dad was spouting at the time made me vomit... not really, but I did find it slightly suspicious that I puked at that moment right after he said those words.

 

 

" Is you daughter sick? I thought I heard someone throw up."

 

 

" Yes, she's repenting." Forever the number one ass kisser of God, my father was, it was the first thing he could think of, and in truth... now that I really actually consider the then and now... I feel that no matter what Aleron had told him, he would've bought it because he didn't care.

 

 

' Oh shit.' I thought after my mind loosened its hold on me. It all came down to this. Wilhelm Larmont had intentionally caused all of my problems aside from my inevitable schizophrenia.

 

 

" I know him. He was my next door neighbor and it's his fault mom was killed and that I was forced to defend myself and kill my father. All his fault." This was familiar as well... this feeling I was getting. Panic, fear, nausea, paranoia, and everything in between.

It was the beginning of yet another episode.


	4. Crete

Crete

Fiat justitia (et ruat caelum)

 

A sigh woke up the room and I found myself in bed once more. I saw L curled up next to me and blinked back some of my sleep to see him actually sleeping.

He didn't look so tired when he was sleeping. I found I missed seeing these other sides of him.

' I'm sorry, L , but... there's more to it than I told you. I really want to tell you about it but I can't it's irrelevant to the case and will just make you angry. Plus... even though it isn't as drastic as some cases, I was still traumatized by it and I want to be able to tell you the story of it one day.' Yeah, the real reason for my (possibly somewhat psychotic) episode was something other than knowing who was behind this. Of course, I feared Larmont as well but it was mostly what he did to me aside from basically causing my parent's death.

I myself was in the fetal position facing him and I couldn't help but want to be closer to L... like before but without these little blobs of pain in my brain I had labeled 'Year 7 of life'. That part of my past was going to be locked up for a good long time. At least until I could bear to think about it willingly because I already knew I was going to have to deal with some brutal dreams or something or other about it.

" Forgetting on purpose is cowardly." Bastien stated, but I couldn't see him right now.

' So is not showing your face, though, personally I would rather not see or speak to any of you... not even Susan. Just please leave me alone with L for awhile.'

" Aren't you going to tell him about what Wilhelm did to you... and I'm talking about something other than him stealing your Ipod but you should really tell him about that too. Moving would keep you both safe." But I felt safe right here.

' I'll tell him when he wakes up. For now, go away.' This time I was a bit more irritated than when I said it the first time. That's usually how it is with things that have to be repeated, isn't it?

L stirred and his eyes opened slightly. Not being able to stop myself a soft smile graced my lips.

" How are you feeling?" Oh, right. I had gotten lost in the dark earlier after overreacting to a remembrance of Larmont.

" Please don't tell me you don't recall fainting awhile ago." Only for a little bit and it wasn't like I wanted to have it stuck in my mind.

" He's been here." I whispered, my face changing again and I sank farther under the blanket. The next thing I noticed was that my clothes were sweaty. This meant that I had probably been having a nightmare while I was out cold and didn't remember it. Like a blackout without the help of drugs.

" How do you know that? That's nearly impossible." Keyword, nearly. I was all too aware of Larmont's ability to appear charming. He had probably stolen or made a fake ID in order to get past the front desk. From there the rest was obvious. Maverick being the sleuth-y thief that he could be he had been able to find my Ipod with startling ease. When it came to breaking the law in pretty much anyway, people with anti-social personality disorder were naturals.

" He's good at what he does. Whatever it is... like sneaking around, killing, it doesn't matter. He feels nothing for it so he has enough confidence for just about anything he wants to do. Maverick may be a gloating sore- loser, but he does have 12 years of planning to back him up, the only thing that he is nearly incapable of doing is predicting where we'll go to or what we'll do. We need to move to a different part of the Kanto region or go to another part of Japan entirely. We could still find the information necessary there. If we move he loses the upper hand and will become agitated. From there I'm sure that he'll start killing again." Then the thought of my Ipod nano came up. He was learning about something vital about me as L and I spoke.

" Fleur? You're sweating. You should take a shower and put on some cleaner clothes, I'll have Watari clean those ones. I'll think up a plan while you're in there and tell you when you get out." Sounded like a plan to me.

" Can you also ask him to get me a beer?"

" You're going to drink beer in the shower?" Shrugging with a smile, I began to take off my shirt. This was even unhealthier than the case before this because he had more of a tie to my past than anyone else that wasn't related to me. I felt like this was going to be the death of me. The thought of knowing -

" Are you also going to take all of your clothes off here? That's bold, even for you considering Watari is on his way here." Looking down, I found that I had been absentmindedly disrobing in full view of the only other person in this room. I had been fumbling with the button on my pants while in my bra. Feeling my face get hot I trotted to the bathroom and removed the remaining icky material.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

There had been the thought that I didn't have to tell her what she was doing while her mind was on another planet, but I knew that the end result wouldn't be anything good. Just because I had already seen her without anything on didn't mean that she was comfortable being so in my presence again just yet.

Eyeing the door, I knew that she'd be out soon to get some clothes for after her shower and I used this time to think.

'Maverick or Wilhelm Larrmont was becoming more trouble than he was worth if his identity alone disrupted her sleeping pattern. There was a good part to this, though. It meant the name was right and that we were on the correct track. Her suffering was too big of a price for this, but...' My gaze situated itself on the bathroom door again.' I can't be biased about this, it'll cloud my judgment. There have been plenty of cases where worse things have happened to the people risking their lives to solve them by getting involved.'

But Fleur didn't have much choice.

" You had better not be worrying about me again." A female voice fumed softly. Taking a glimpse at the person behind it, I closed my eyes for a few seconds, opening them to see her still there in a snow white towel with darkened damp hair. Her face told me she didn't care nearly as much about her choice of wardrobe as she did about my thoughts on this case. Not exactly the appearance of someone fearing the outcome of a case and I found myself glad that she hadn't let herself give into any of the chaos around her... although, since it was Fleur... she had dealt with quite a bit of that already.

Clearing my throat, I tried to keep my eyes diverted away from her.

" I wasn't worried but... you might want to get some clothes on. You shouldn't let such trivial things get to you."

" You're one to talk." She smirked, rounding on me.

" Am I?"

" Stop playing dumb and get out so I can get dressed." With one last glance at her, I smiled a little at her.

" Very well."

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

When he stepped out, I locked the door behind me. I wasn't in my usual room. I didn't trust it right now. Larmont knew which room I was in and I wanted to go in there and move to another floor. And room altogether.

I pulled on a purple off shoulder top with a soft thick band that hugged my shoulders and stopped after about two inches, the sides of the band were lace up and orange. Black long sleeves idly covered my arms up until they got to my wrists where they cuffed in an orange tie corset way similar to the sides of the band. There was an open panel on the front that was also black. Along the bottom was a black ruffle or frill sewn on the hem. The shorts I was wearing went to the middle of my thighs and also had cuffs but these ones were thinner than the cuffs on my top and were orange with purple back pockets and obvious black stitching on them. The cute pockets had the outline of a cat face on one in the front (left) and the tiny paw prints on a back one (right). To top it all off, I had a kitty hat that I had actually made while I was in the institute on an arts and crafts day. It was orange with whiskers, purple eyes, and a little black nose and curved 'w' mouth.

Walking out of the room, I stretched feeling clean and hungry.

L's eyes wandered over to me and as if on cue my stomach growled and the corners of my lips tried to touch my chin. Stupid stomach ratting me out.

After L called for Watari over the intercom , requesting he bring me up a meal. Even my eyes were drooling at the site of medium rare steak. Had I at one point before I left told Watari about how I liked my steak or was he just good at guessing like L often was...

Or had L told him because he pwned at guessing (obviously) since he kind of had to be in the first place with his being a detective and all.

" God, I miss being able to eat like this." So, sneaking all cares through the crack of the closest closed window, I ohm nom'd the food like it was the last meal I'd ever have. 

" Was the food there-"

" I don't even like to think about thinking about it if that tells you anything."

" Everything actually." My smile grew at this remark. If only I hadn't come here to help him solve another case and instead returned because I had recovered enough that I could live a semi-normal life. Not that L really could. I was more than aware of how he preferred this to something like that in the first place.

" Wanna try some?"

" No thank you. I'm fine with this." He answered with a mouth full of strawberry short cake, I suppressed a giggle, and continued as I was sure to keep my eyes on the screens, watching for anything further that I could remember or anything that we had missed.

Out of nowhere, the screen changes to a picture I hadn't seen yet, and the feeling I got from the photo made my insides churn slightly.

The picture showed the body of a person identified as a thirty-eight year old woman... someone that I actually semi recognized as a student of my mother's that used to come over a lot. The thing that shocked me the most was the position of her body.

Crucified, hanging upside down with a severed artery at her throat, one thin 'u' like smile cut into her stomach, knife pistoned into her chest, an arrow burned into the flesh of her stomach above the 'u' cut, half of both ears had been removed by a serrated knife, and horizontal cuts along her wrists and ankles.

' He threw the first four killings together.' The next showed a man with a burnt left hand, a dehydrated right, and a beaten left leg while the right was covered in frostbites. Cut into his forehead was the eye of God symbol. The fifth week.

These pictures were bugging me because I had a feeling that the people in them weren't killed in weeks but just days apart.

The next body was bludgeoned, their hands were removed at the wrist by wire, and a thin circle is cut around the neck...deep enough to hit a very fatal artery and kill them... after awhile. The difference between his killings and the schizophrenic's ones were that his showed less mercy. Something predictable and expected from a person like

The seven deadly sins are carved into the flesh of the next victim which was while they were still alive, and then they are drowned in holy water. Then I determined that holes were drilled into their arms, hands, feet, and legs. Then 6 even holes 3 on both the left and right side of the victim's chest, mid section, and then right above their pelvis. Through the neck... and then the head with a total of 28...after rigor mortis set in.

The last body was hand sliced to bits with the bones removed and chunks from the body was missing. This meant that there was a possible chance that Maverick had done the same thing that my father and the others from that place had done during the tenth week. The week before they started repeating the list with added cannibalism.

" When were each of these bodies found?" Getting back into crime solving mode while eating wasn't easy to do as multi-tasking wasn't possible for me to do for long amounts of time.

I was reminded of this when a spot of juice from the steak landed on my leg, making me jump at the ever so mild contact as well as the warmth of the edible speck.

A slight feeling of nausea fell over me when I thought about how what I was eating resembled what Maverick himself had recently done.

" They were all found the same day in a line, one body next to the other, though the autopsy reports say that these people had been dead for awhile. He must have wanted them to all be found at the same time on the same day. It's like he's telling another part of the story..." He turned his eyes to me." Like he's telling you another part of your own story since this was a big part of your life. That or he's saying 'I know more about what goes on in your life than you do about mine' as if to show off and/or insult us. Then again it could be a mixed message saying both things." The thudding of my brain was becoming more and more painful and I had to focus on blocking out everything other than sane and justifiable reason. It wasn't easy.

" This is why we have to move. I think that there are cameras in my room that he set up and we already know that he has my Ipod nano which is virtually my journal. My having schizophrenia makes me an easy target for a person like him in the first place and since he has my Ipod with even more information about me... I've become a liability to you, myself, and this case in general." As much sense as that didn't make to even me. Sensing his eyes on the back of my head, I guessed that he had been able to figure out how I had gotten some of the info that I had.

" Have you been talking to them?" Shit, I was right. Why did I feel so guilty?

" Only a little and its aided in getting us somewhere in this case." So far the only means I was justifying were my own and it wasn't in a way I'd call sane.

" Can't we just check the camera feed?" Shaking my head, I looked at him sheepishly.

" I already checked and it's been erased. I can't even tell what time it happened because the bastard fucked with that too."

" That's not too surprising."

" I know."

" But moving back to the subject that we were originally talking about. Which ones have you been talking to?"

" Jezze. The me you can't see." This was probably the last name he wanted to hear but he was the one that had asked, so it was his fault if he didn't like the reply he was given.

" You know how risky that is, Fleur." He mildly scolded and I pouted. This was to be expected but he was still right... to an extent.

" I don't care. Besides, you're one to talk since you knew of the 'risk' I was in the first place. From the beginning, you knew that I could've been even worse than this. It's not like I've tried killing myself again or anything like that. My speech pattern can hardly be called unorganized. If anything this case is giving me a reason to stay sane. You brought me here, so let me use the resources I have... whether they're a part of your reality or not." This sounded like the best explanation I could give at the moment.

And it seemed to have actually worked too because after a moments silence and thought from him, I saw that he had given up on trying to change my mind.

" These..." He stopped himself, and began again, rephrasing his words probably so that he didn't make me angry or offended in some way.

" Have they actually been helping?" My nod made him sigh.

" Then I suppose that it isn't so bad that you've been conversing with them, but when it gets too bad- like last time- then I request that you stop because-"

" Yeah yeah, I know." Scratching my head a bit I went back to thinking things through with Maverick and why he did what he did and what these meanings really were. Sure, L's explanation made sense but I wanted to make sure that there wasn't anything additional that I could have missed. This was all too possible for me to do especially right now. He kidnapped and then killed three people while we thought absolutely nothing was going on from his side. That was our miscalculation.

" How was he able to do all that without our knowing it?" This was the key question at this point. If we were able to find the answer then we would ultimately be that much closer to finding him and solving this case.

" Those students all dropped out and you only knew one of them because she was often tutored by your mother at the time that you knew her. So, ultimately... we didn't hear of their being gone because, chances were, they lived alone and had no family nearby that they kept in contact with." L drawled, idly stacking creamers on top of one another as meticulously as Jezze had talked to me while I was in that institution. Jezze was confusing. How else can you describe someone that was almost successful in getting you to kill yourself, changed to helping you get better while you were in the institution your father went to, and was now a neutral card that didn't seem to want to really play for any side but the one that was most fun to her.

' Holy shit, she sounds like me.' Craving a beer, I gallivanted away from L for a few moments to make a drink that would help in calming me down and make thinking clearly more possible for a person like me.

" I am you." Was all it took.

" I'm going to let my drink think for me now."

" Voices bothering you that badly already? You don't usually give up this early in the evening." Stopping in my tracks and turning to him, I set a firm glare to the back of his head. When he rotated in his chair and gave me a small dose of his innocent smile, which I couldn't resist in even the lowest of doses, and all frustration slid from my mind and I was sure that I trampled it on my way out the door.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Looking back to the couch, I felt a flash of déjà vu, seeing Fleur's casually stretched out frame across the sofa's expanse. The table in front of her was laden with bottles of various wines and a single glass, on it the only evidence of her vice.

Covering her with a blanket, my mind was still on the case that we had been talking over. Wilhelm didn't have a pattern that was predictable like Severino and the others, he killed according to a plan he had already set into motion.

Earlier, while buzzed, Fleur had drawn on the board, in an attempt to predict his next move. On her own, she had come down to numbers and that was about the time she passed out on the provided makeshift bed.

Three and one had been her numbers.

" He killed once a month, right, usually on a Wednesday, which is also known as the third day of the week.' Marking that with a number three she continued on." He killed at this pace for thirteen months." A '13' appeared on the board.' The only problem here is that he used four bodies to get this point across..."

 

" But you only knew one of them. Do you suppose he was trying to make up for that or was... perhaps... sending another message?" Draining her shot, she wrote a one and a three separately. She was still counting the one body that she knew with the rest of the more unknown victims.

 

" One a month." Her muttering led to her striking a line before her first three, to signify a one.

 

" Three ones and three threes. Side by side they make thirteen three times." Hand moving to the bridge of her nose, she rubbed it with her free hand. While Fleur escaped to the couch, I wrote in the next thirteen after the others. As crazy as it sounded, there were many people out there that were obsessed with numbers in one way or another and there were even fewer that killed with them.

 

" Then when you add all the numbers up together they make twelve, which you can also get from the number by adding the one and the two in the number itself... but are we adding all the smaller numbers or are we adding the thirteen's? No, it would make sense to add the two numbers of twelve separately and take out the two so that we have yet another one and three. He waited twelve years to do it. Who can wait that long? Why did he have to meet my dad?" She muttered as her eyes drooped until they shut and she went out cold.

 

' It's a whole lot harder to follow someone with numbers when we don't know if they're making this pattern on purpose or not. Someone that is this organized for not having killed yet even after all that time to think it over... there's a chance that he's killed before.' Rushing back to the computer, I dug into cases from thirteen years ago up until now. Jezebel turned twenty recently, so I can't add that to the list.

Watari later came in and removed all the bottles from the table. He was also sure to get the collectable wine glass. I don't recall when exactly she started collecting wine glasses but I found out that she had a few collectable shot glasses too.

' She'll take utmost care of fragile decorated glass but will throw a coffee maker out the window without a second thought.' Then I found something. It was a short clip on something that went on around where Fleur and her family lived about a year after the deaths of her parents. 'College Student Deaths Accumulating' it talked about how there were random murders going on around the college near where she used to live. The last day consisted of at least four killings that weren't all at once... more like every four or so hours from one another. Meaning that it was relevant to what was going on now. He seemed to pick students and people that were school related and it was the only one that really fit.

' As if to prepare for his wait up until today?' It was at least thirty or so people before he stopped, and left.

Switching from that to look over the photos again, using what Fleur had once told me before.

" You can sometimes find out the type of murderer they are by the marks on the body. Depth mostly but there's also the cleanness of the cut. Tells you about their anger and what they focus most on."

 

The one I could use the most was the one that had all the seven sins carved into her flesh as well as the first one that had the 'u' cut. The marks were deep, agitated, and feral on the first girl while the sins on the other were meticulously done, semi-deep, and almost gentle looking.

Maverick was burning the candle at both ends by using both types almost as if he knew what she'd go by and look for. It still helped though since it showed that he was the rare type that could actually control himself but chose not to because of the control factor.

He seemed to be all about control. It all made sense in that light. What with the waiting for so long, taking the time to learn about the way Fleur lived and where, and then only planning these things during the years to make sure that everything fell into place. Not to mention being so bold as to enter this very building and take something of importance to her.

Hearing the sound of blankets rustling behind me, I knew that Fleur had woken up. She was on her stomach with one leg hanging precariously over the side of the couch, her hands supported her head, which she had turned to face me with drunken eyes.

" Where are we moving to?" She asked sloppily, letting her eyes close. I wondered if she had been thinking about that this whole time.

" We're moving to Osaka. He obviously lives here. Probably nearby. It'd be best if we move just far enough to make him go looking for us."

" Do the numbers make sense?" She rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling, no doubt happy that the only light in the room was emanating from the monitors.

" So far they do." I quieted my voice so that it didn't give her even more of a headache than she already had, and walked over to her with a glass of orange juice. It was something I had learned to prepare for her after she passed out from drinking. Before she left for the institution I had been sure to leave a glass of orange juice or coffee on the bedside table for her the next morning, if she had been drinking the night before.

" What time is it?" Her voice was strained and barely a whisper as she downed the orange glucose filled beverage.

" It just turned three. Are you hungry?"

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

" Not after looking at those pictures first thing in the morning." I was surprised with myself being able to eat medium rare meat in the midst of the first time I saw them that day. Thinking of this made my stomach uneasy and then other gruesome images popped into my head.

" Well, eating meat that's fifty percent raw in front of a body with parts missing, having probably been eaten is quite the feat." A voice I hadn't heard in awhile returned and that sentence alone had me running towards the bathroom and throwing up my orange juice and whatever else resided in there.

Safe to say that I really didn't like Bastien right now nor was I very glad to have a stomach that could make me throw up.

" Finally get to you?" He was standing in the doorway with another cup of orange juice at the ready.

"My mind is such a mean thing. It sent Bastien to verbally attack while my stomach was weak." Accepting the drink from him, I tried to rid my mouth of the awful taste of bile.

" He's a murderer with self control and a plan that's he's thought through as many times as possible whenever he could. All this was done to make sure there wasn't anything he missed, but there has to be. We don't know where he is... why can't we just look up the name?"

" You checked and found the case that went on when I was younger, right? The one that went on about a year after I was moved." With his nod, I proceeded to explain my reasons.

" Wilhelm Larmont used a different alias every time he got on a plane to kill someone. The only reason I can think of for his doing that was because he knew that he'd be pinpointed for them and be the only connection, and those aliases also prove that anyone killed here in a way like that was murdered by him because they recognized him and got in the way of what he was doing... or they suspected what he was and what he had done. Chances are that he has an alarm linked to his name that will inform him of our finding him. It's something the police did years ago when he was killing all those students. They looked up his name and found out where he lived but by the time they could go there to find him he had somehow been told about their arrival and was able to escape soon enough. They never caught him. He had ultimately... thought ahead and was using it as practice." I could feel him watching me as I told him everything, even as I had my eyes locked on a blank monitor. Noticing that, I almost started laughing since, when I think about it, that's how my mind was when I was rambling about something or other.

A blank monitor with no control over the things she did.

" May I ask what he did to you?" Again I wondered where the zipper on my brains shield was, and I looked at him, hoping and very nearly praying that he didn't mean what I thought he did.

" I thought I already told you about my father." The expression on his face told me that he wasn't buying the whole 'playing dumb' scheme I had apparently failed to set into motion.

" Are you really going to tell him about that? The other reason why you're afraid of people aside from your bat shit crazy schizophrenic father?" Flinching almost painfully, I knew Lawliet saw and that I was now trapped in a virtual corner with all but one collapsed escape route.

And it wasn't as much of an escape route as it was a toll booth exit.

" He was psychologically detrimental to my health." That was saying it lightly. He nearly killed me several dozen times while I was growing up.

I think my face said there was more too because L didn't let me off there.

" How so?" Why couldn't he just let it go?

" Because it can be very unhealthy for your mind to be almost one hundred percent convinced that you were going to be killed at the age of six."

" He threaten you life?"

" Only with his fists around my neck in an iron grip. Don't worry, he didn't kill me. The only thing my naïve mind thought he was going to do was cause me to pass out from lack of oxygen to my brain and that was because he was smiling every time he did it." It didn't seem to matter that it was an inappropriate time to laugh because I cracked up for about ten seconds afterwards.

Lately, I've been frowning about as often as I've been laughing and that was only because I was frowning every time I laughed when I didn't want to.

' Talk about issues with control.' Mental fuming wasn't getting us anywhere. I had to focus, but that was difficult enough without my personal complexes. Glancing over at L, I became curious. Was he having inner conflicts too? Was I troubling him by simply being around him? He seemed to be able to control himself exceptionally well when it came to of topic emotions.

" Please tell me that you aren't conversing with one of them in your head again."

" Please tell me that you aren't worrying about me again." I tossed back in the same calm tone he had used.

" You are in my care, wouldn't that make you my responsibility?" Swiveling in my direction, he set me with a stare that I remembered by the feeling I got from it two years ago and now.

" Why do you think he's going after you?" Good question.

" I'm not exactly sure, but it could be because I'm an easy target to him. Weak. A simple victim and he doesn't care and he more than likely even gets off on making me and all those other people suffer because of what he's doing." In that moment I didn't give a damn if I had said something like this before and just forgotten to say it. In fact, if I had ever meant it before then it just meant that this was really how I felt about what Maverick was doing. This was between him and me, right? So, why was he using all of these people in order to get to me?!

' Shut up! Relax and get your head away from that. Concentrate on logic.' Days. How much time did we have until the next murder? Where and who would be the next victim?

" Think with 13." Beginning from there I made things up as I went." Names that might have a certain meaning that have thirteen letters in their name. Or maybe- maybe the meaning has thirteen letters in their name. Street or house names or numbers. Things like that." It was all we had that we could really work with.

" What if the number is fourteen and all these other things were just coincidences?" This illuded my thinking process for a moment and then my mind started working again and I listened further.

" Isn't it possible he went after you because your real name has fourteen letters in it? Just like his real name does. You told me that he was narcissistic, meaning that it's likely that his number obsession revolves around him. That is, if he really does have an obsession with numbers. If this isn't the case then it is also likely that he is taking us, mainly you, on a wild goose chase to drive you crazier than you think you are." That made my curiosity latch to him.

" What do you mean by that? You know that I am legally insane."

" Only because you have a different reality than everyone else. To me, that doesn't make you insane because usually the one that seems the most insane is usually the sanest one trying to survive. Depending on the situation, of course." Of course, he knew that when it came to me that there were always many things to consider. No matter what we were verbalizing.

So I thought about the possibilities of it being true.

" J-e-z-e-b-e-l-s-h-a-n-t-o-n and W-i-l-h-e-l-m-l-a-r-m-o-n-t. Fourteen and fourteen. The four dead could stand for the four and the one you knew could stand on their own as well as together with the others, making fourteen once more. This goes for the Wednesdays he killed people on too. One month the third day of the week. One plus three equals four. It could also make fourteen. Then there's also the thirteen separate kills that go with the four random kills that happened all at once or not too long after one another. It could be many different things, Fleur." My head lolled over in the direction of the female voice. Susie was sitting on the couch, playing with a stuffed teddy bear.

" He became interested in you not simply because you don't share a reality with the rest of the world... but because of one menial reason... the number of letters in your name." I muttered after she said the same thing.

" How fucked up would that be?" Blurting this out and turning to L, I saw him think about it.

" Then again... who am I to talk about menial reasons and faulty logic after all that I've done."

" You did forget to wear your other sock and you did cut words into the wall outside of your door in Leet. Words that didn't even make sentences that made sense... to me anyways. What did it mean?" Funny how I had already forgotten it completely. What had I meant again when I wrote it?

Oh, that's right.

" IV07i-i1m6(nothing)." I smirked, and he glanced over to me.

" Do the things you do out of impulse or compulsion mean anything to you?" Flashbacking to my dreams and things like that, I wondered for a moment myself.

" Depends. I'm going to go back to sleep now. It'll be morning soon." With that, I jumped up into his bed and allowed his lingering scent to sing me a schizophrenically sweet lulladaze and the covers sank in around my body, protecting me physically from my own thoughts.

My own hallucinations.


	5. Dulcina

Dulcina

Fortuna vitrea est; tum cum splendet frangitur

Chopin. Beethoven. Vivaldi. I saw them and others in my dreams and didn't know why and they weren't the only ones either. It was them plus other things that didn't make sense in waking or the unconscious. All that made sense was when I found myself awake the next morning wondering the same question almost every time.

' Have I gotten worse?' Never really had the time to think or worry about it thankfully. Worrying was unhealthy.

Then again so was hating someone... especially someone like Maverick.

" You haven't packed yet?" He sounded surprised. I hadn't even gotten up out of my bed.

" I'm not going to allow you to isolate yourself again."

" You do it." My mumbled retort was met with a knowing look.

" Yes, but I don't have schizophrenia." Point taken. The silence in my room didn't bother me. I was absorbing all those floating memories that had been sitting and saturating the walls with memories of different shapes, sizes, and levels of realisticness. I kept them all, though. How was I supposed to be able to tell which ones were real and which one weren't? I just knew that some of them weren't real because the thing that filtered what was real and what wasn't to me hated me.

Getting to my feet, I wondered what my minds eulogy would be. Even Susie was changing personalities.

' I can't even stay consistent with how I wanted to be if I had had a normal father.' Can anyone tell me how messed up that is?

Choosing to only pack what I had made, I got started on the first box. Lawliet was standing in my doorway with a bowl of pink strawberry ice cream.

" May I ask what is on your mind?"

" Too much, Law-kun. My mind can't make up its mind and my friends are showing how much it hates me." Probably not getting much from that, he tried again, deciding to use another topic.

" Why do you think Maverick wanted your mother dead?" That question was almost too perfect at this moment.

I had almost forgotten my theory. Having been only seven at the time didn't matter, at that young age with strange parents and an emotionally and mentally detrimental next door neighbor meant that I had to be careful.

" He knew her and he knew she knew what he was."

" How? Didn't you say that she was the naïve type that was usually trusting? Those people are better at seeing the good in people rather than the bad." Only if you went by the profile.

" Because that was mother's role. She knew what he was because she was the same as him. The thing was she used her drive for business rather than play and that was what made her a threat to Wilhelm. Then again, having ASPD made her a threat either way. He himself would not have stood a chance against her tact, so instead he used father. Father killed her only because he was afraid that he would not have a sacrifice to give God when that day came around. Since mother at least half fit his type he used her as a makeshift angel."

" When did you learn about the way your mother really was?"

" You mean 'who'?" Continuing to fold a shirt and place it in the box, I was barely able to catch L's half nod.

" Mr. Rogers would have made a better next door neighbor." Had L ever heard of Mr. Rogers?

" So Larmont?" This reply was of an obviously questioning nature and I smiled over my shoulder at him. The only one that was always there for me, that had always trusted me and my word, loving me through all of it. If it weren't for him then I'd still be in that asylum.

Walking over to him, I lackadaisically wrapped my arms around Deneuve, grateful to myself for having put my hair up in a floppy bun so that it didn't invade his ice cream.

" I love you." This escaped my mouth before I could even get the chance to care. I didn't give the detective enough credit in my life.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

My reaction to this was delayed and I almost dropped my ice cream. This had to be the most unexpected thing Fleur had ever done or said since she got back from being institutionalized.

Not waiting for me to move, she let me go and went back to collecting the clothes that were most important to her. She didn't even care to throw me out of her room when she gathered up her lingerie in a pocket of the large suitcase.

Her random behavior made me both happy and worried and without a way of being able to tell if she was sane enough to think of her well being as well as the case, I didn't know how to feel even after her spontaneous action. So, I brushed it off so that I could stay ignorant of it. Pretend that she was and that what she had just done was done out of love instead of a lack of control of her own functions.

I also noted the Smirnoff bottle on her bedside table and found myself unable to tell from simply looking at it just how full (or empty) it was. Was she drunk? She didn't seem to be as I watched her pack with the ease of a sober adult.

" How much have you had?"

" Enough to still be able to think pleasantly and work easily. Enough to not be going in and out of knowingness, and enough to the point where I will not pass out anytime soon." Her coy smile was more playful than elusive. I could still see it hiding a hint of hurt behind it, though.

" You don't think I love you?" The pain lining her voice made me want to wince, but I held back the urge and set down my bowl.

" Why do you do that?" This question was a small test. Her eyes held a blink of curiosity and mixed in with it was a thrill.

" Do what?" Her reply was almost instant and innocent.

" Drink yourself to sleep almost every night." Switching to a smirk, she let on that she would play along.

" What can I say, Deneuve? I'm a coward trying to drink away her bullshit life. That's how I normally would have eventually answered, if I remember realistically enough and correctly enough as well. Did you know that Chloe, my mother, drank about as often as I do now, which was why she was always smiling and so carefree, and I also recall always thinking that I would never do that the way she did." Fleur missed her mother.

" Why is it you look so sad whenever you talk about Chloe?" It could have just been me.

" This is not a question from any quiz I remember taking."

" It's new." Her chuckle was something I was all too glad to hear.

" On our way to our new home in Osaka, I want to make a stop in either Shinjuku or Harajuku for some skirts." I caught the change of topic and suspected that she'd give me an answer sooner or later.

" That's fine, Watari and I will drive around the area if you want to be alone."

" Thanks, Lawliet. I just need a small break from this case and things should be fine... ish."

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

A few hours out and about in the Lolita capital of the world I found out that heaven did exist and I was at peace with everything.

": Fleur?:" Nearly jumping out of my pale skin, I spun around to find someone that I hadn't expected to see ever again.

": Avent.:" I knew he existed because I wasn't stressed out in the slightest.

" :You look as hot as ever.:" Yep, it was Avent and he was real and standing right in front of me.

" :Why are you here? You hate these places.:"My attempt to make sense of this chance meet ultimately failed. His avoidant eyes said that this wasn't chance.

": I was looking for you, thought I'd find you eventually. I wanted to talk you, you know? Make things right. Wanna go to a café or something for a little bit?:" Counting how many skirts I had in my mind, I shook my head.

": Not unless you mind making a stop at one more place beforehand. I am going by a list up here," I tapped the side of my head with a finger. And I plan on sticking to it.:"

": I can work on those terms.:" He agreed with a nod, and I found myself dubious of his existence in the real world once more.

": How long have you been hunting for me:?" Was the first thing I asked as soon as we were seated at the café.

": You really haven't changed. Never starting a meet and greet with a real 'hello' or 'how've you been?'.:" My stare was unwavering until her gave me the answer to my question.

": Not too long.:" He admitted and I smiled a bit, satisfied with his truthful answer.

": I had been thinking about it, though. I've been thinking about it a lot over all those years. I figured later on that the only way I could make amends and move on is if I met up with you somehow and either ended things on a lighter note or became friends.:" The person before me was starting to sound more and more like a stranger.

": Well... I'm here, so what is the rest of your plan?:" This was too good to pass up.

": Ummm...:" Faltering for only a minute, he picked up from out of nowhere.

":I'm sorry I treated you so badly and I know I don't deserve it, but can we still be friends?:" Huh, well, the punk actually did it.

": You've changed.:" It made me suspicious." Are you on something now or are you just trying to get into my pants through a whole new method?" Running his fingers through his hair, he made a face that I could think to be apologetic.

": I deserved that. But how about it?:" Damn right he did and something wasn't right about his actions. Something about him seemed off but I couldn't tell what it was. It was a risk, though. He was a risk. A risk to both L and myself.

But mostly L.

":Okay. You're forgiven. Friends it is. How about we meet up again sometime?" A plan introduced itself while I stared at the house in front of me.

": That would be great. Can you give me your number then or call me the next time you want to meet up? You still have my number, right? Or do you need it again?:" I think anyone would understand me thinking his number wasn't important enough to remember.

": No, I have it.:" The lie was spoken easily, guiltlessly, and he seemed to be, once again, happy.

": Okay, awesome. I'll be waiting for your call.:" As if on cue his cell phone rang after he said that, but his genuine look of surprise made me sure that it was purely coincidence.

": Hello?:" He answered uncertainly.

": Oh, really? Okay, I am getting a taxi now and heading over. ..Yup... twenty minutes top.:" Then he hung up.

": Hey, look I got to go.:" No way.

": As in work? You have a job?:" This is incredible... unbelievable actually. Something had to be up.

": Yeah, it's more of an apprenticeship, but... it's something. I want to do something in reporting. You know, for like the newspaper and television news. You never were one to pay attention to things like that unless it popped up somewhere online:" Then he shot me that 100 watt smile that used to make me melt. Avent was a very good looking young man, but after all that happened between him and I... I knew that I'd never be able to see him as more than a friend ever again.

": Good for you, Avent. I'm glad you're taking up responsibility and taking initiative in your life.:" I returned his smile slightly.

": Thanks, Fleur.:" He took a look at his watch and gave me a boyish apologetic grin that I hadn't seen in awhile.

": I'm gonna be late if I don't hurry, but call me sometime soon, okay. I'll buy you coffee or something.:" Then he was gone.

The gears in my head working at top speed, I stepped back into a store and found a more secluded area. Picking up my own cell phone, I called Deneuve.

" Ready for us to come by?"

" No, bad idea, Deneuve. I had an all too random meet up with Avent and I got a bad vibe from it. Go to Osaka and I will find a place close to it and stay there. We can keep in contact with each other through the same way we used to when I was in Marseille. I want to see if everything is okay, and you will still be able to keep tabs on me. I want Avent to think that I'm alone and that I stopped working for you or stopped being whatever he thought I was to you. While I'm out the next time I meet up with Avent, I want you to set up cameras around my temporary little living space in case something really is up."

" You're suspicious of Avent?" Was all he had to say back.

" I just want to find out if I'm being paranoid or not. Plus if Wil is still stalking me, it'll throw him off too."

" There's more to what you are saying." By now I had signed for a room under the name of Fleur Variant and was walking up the stairs to my room.

" Isn't that how it usually is?" Making something seem like light teasing on the way to my room was easy. It was just a little code to him letting him know I was still around the possible public ear. After the soft click of the door closing behind me and one more click of the lock for good measure... I went back to normal conversation.

" What's your theory?" He must have heard the door close and lock from where he was.

" Avent said that he had been thinking about me and looking for me for awhile now. Things like that. We talked for a bit and the whole time we did he was acting strangely. Said he was working in an apprenticeship program sort of thing. His steadily increasing enthusiasm that showed itself whenever I agreed to forgive him and talk to him/meet up with him on occasion was unusual. The first thing that felt out of place was him being in Japan in the first place. He was in France during the first case."

" You think Maverick has something to do with this?"

" Yeah... could you send me my stuff in a different vehicle or something? Since he was in the building and only touched things on my floor, there are chances that some of the things are bugged. I know you aren't there yet, which is good because he could be tracking it right now. If I'm right about how he is then he needs to know where I am at all times. He needs that control."

" Especially since you are his main target." L finished.

" Precisely. You know where I am?"

" I have an idea. Watari has sent a taxi with your belongings to your residence so it should be there shortly."

" Thanks, Deneuve." Smiling, I hung up the phone, glad that I hid it in my pillowcase while I slept and in my bra while I was awake. It was even more unlikely that Avent would be out this late in an area he didn't know left from right in.

Soon enough I received a knock on my door and waited until the person had walked away before I opened the door and collected my stuff.

Selecting from one of the cases the very same laptop that I had mentioned to L just a few minutes ago, I removed it from its place, and threw it behind me carelessly. Its landing resounded with a satisfying crack and thud, but there was more that could be done.

And I found what more I could do. I took another case, gripping the handle tightly, and lifted it with purpose in my right hand. Slowly walking over to the problem, I raised it over my little problematic technological device, and struck the fatal blow with a single surge of strength.

Laptop guts and other pieces of debris scattered away from the source and I let out a relieved exhalation. When that was dealt with I called the same company I had gotten the other one from and ordered the exact same one. While I was on the phone with one of the employees I was sweeping up the remains, and when I saw the reason for my justified ventilation of stress, I flushed it down my toilet, and watched as it was swept away in the blue vortex of water and chemicals.

The room was nice but living with L had spoiled me... but I guess having your own floor to yourself will do that to you. I had signed up for a room that was located right under the penthouse suite to not seem quite so obvious while still being able to enjoy a view of Japan. There was a television and basic furniture, kitchen with a medium sized island and stools, and the walls themselves were decorated with crimson paint and gold lining as if it were meant for someone with royal blood. The fridge was a nice size as well, and I didn't hold back my urge to stock it up with whatever alcoholic beverages I could.

What can I say? It's in my nature as the individual I was.

That and in destroying my defenseless mechanical partner I had taken away one piece of Maverick's control over me and my location and the sort as well as started building my advantage. Something that was hard to come by in my life.

' Instead of doing these things himself he sends out a lackey... someone I know and used to have a relationship with... and then flipped his mind around his little thumb and was holding it in place there. Avent said that he got an apprenticeship in reporting... was that a message of some sort? It seems like it would be since reporting wasn't something I could see Avent getting into. Everything he said was almost the exact opposite of what I was used to hearing from him. That could have been a signal for help straight to my face... and if he had to use different words to request my help it meant that he had had a bug on him of some sort on him at the time.' My mind used all these facts as building blocks and support beams to see if my 'theory' as L had called it was convincing enough to a legally sane person.

I could hear the unbalanced musical sound of coffee being brewed in the background while I situated myself at the center of pictures of the case. My order was taking awhile so I thought I'd start off with a nice cup of caffeine. The urge for a snack came up too... but I seemed to only desire things that were made by Watari or my own cheesecake.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Three weeks later, Avent's body was found in his apartment and Fleur was living with me once more in Osaka. Right now she was behind me pacing a hole in to the floor as she contemplated this unexpected and unusual addition to the case.

" Fleur, pacing back and forth isn't going to help you figure this out." I saw her nod out of my peripheral vision.

" This is true. Which is why I'm also drinking as I pace." The sound of chugging reached my ears, and I turned to see her sip her margarita. Then she stopped, and chanced a glance at the picture of Avent.

" I don't think he knew that the person he was being the 'apprentice' to was Maverick. This is another part of the story. See, I told you the drinking helped me think." Her eyes scanned over the photo casually and it was then that I knew that she had gone back to being the same girl that had numbed herself to images like these just as I had long ago.

Her lack of a reaction was enough to tell me this because the only way we were able to tell it was Avent was through a DNA sample. The guy had gone into the coroner's office in a body bag, but it was an abnormal body bag.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Avent had been sliced up deep fried and it was my fault. I knew this because I signed his death sentence contract as soon as I started going out with him. I knew something was up when I saw that lumpy black bag that was a giant blood spot all around.

Maverick was angry at me for finding out about what he had done. Smashing the laptop...

Avent had still known my phone number.

Reacting as if my bra was on fire, I yanked out the jinxing little device, threw it at the wall as hard as I could, and then picked it up and examined the damage. When it didn't crack the little sucker open, I bashed it against the ground. Within the mess and tangle of metal memory and sim I found the odd one out.

It was small and dark, I picked it out with a pair or tweezers I had grabbed from a sewing kit of mine that was nearby.

L didn't turn around even though the sounds of the cellular phone being maimed echoed throughout the room.

' Found you.' I thought with pride and a smile on my face.

" Fleur, you're bleeding." My eyes snapped to him and then flowed down to my hands where I was now starting to notice a dull pain. I had used my right hand to smash the phone into the ground and had also forgotten to move my fingers out of the way. Tiny streams of red were my delayed reminder.

Deneuve sighed and stood up, grasping the wrist of my good hand gently. He tugged slightly to pass to me the idea and I stood up, gaze set on my wound. They were minor but still fascinating.

" When you do things like things I believe I have the right to worry. Does it hurt?" I could hardly feel it, but I didn't want to tell him that I was used to it.

" Only a little." A high pain tolerance deserved some credit. That and the booze was likely to have had a big hand in it too.

" Did you find what you were looking for?" Cringing somewhat when I felt the disinfectant touch my miniature injuries, I managed to smile.

" It's the tiniest little GPS I've seen yet. You aren't the only one that hates cell phones, Law-kun." None the less, I held up the little square to eye level. Standing in the doorway, I was blocking L from moving around all that much and so he motioned for me to hop up on the counter.

" You know I feel like a child whenever things end up like this, right?" My face was set in a pout and red tinged my cheeks lightly as my eyes were cast to the wall and half-lidded in juvenile stubbornness.

There was a softness or gentleness to the treatment he gave me.

" You are quite a bit younger than me." He reminded, and I shot him a look that probably didn't help my case as I had stuck my tongue out at him for a second. Then he pressed down on cut, making my hand twitch.

" It's not wise to be mean to the one helping you."

" You're freaking out... your brain bugging out for my insanity issues?" I added with a downcast look.

" You have the idea that we can retrace his footsteps using that chip." His change of topic gave me the answer to my question whether he had meant to or not.

" I hate it when you do that." L chuckled at my words and warmth touched my forehead as he kissed it softly. I blushed when I felt my toes tingle.

" I'm well aware of that." How could his voice sound so nice at a time like this? It just wasn't fair.

" When did you remember your mother having...ASPD?"

" Awhile ago. All it took was a flashback... well, more like every flashback I have ever had that involved her. I noticed that her smile never reached her eyes. My mother had no ability to love me or Artois but she was a good parent. So was my father until he ended up... you know."

" There's more to this one than before. Do you suspect the reason why?" My quirky detective had his searching eyes on me, and I felt them pierce through my defenses. He knew but wanted confirmation.

" The relationship I had with Avent could have attributed to how brutal Maverick was to Avent."

" Were you ever in love with him?"

" You seem to have a bad habit there, L-kun."

" I was jealous of this man long before he died, Fleur." My hand was being caressed in his while he wrapped it like a mummy.

" I'm going to go to bed after a nice long hot shower before I never eat again."

" Good idea. Sleep well and I insist you be careful of your hand if you can." Gee, you think?

It was still nice to know he cared, though.

" Thanks, L." It was six in the morning and when I saw those numbers reading on my digital bedside clock, I almost fell asleep on the floor. Lately, I found that I was getting more and more tired.

' Maybe it's because I haven't been sleeping the way I was used to sleeping.'

" Go tell L that, Fleur." Susie was gripping the fabric on my leg. I had come and gone from the shower already and had changed into a pair of soft satin black pants and a comfy black camisole that ruffled at the hem slightly and even had a bit of lace over where the ruffle started.

Telling L about this was the last thing I wanted to do as I knew it would just take us longer to solve this case.

" You're already holding him back, you idiot." That was Jezze. All three of them were there.

Maybe I should go and bother L.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

For awhile I watched Jezebel on the camera in her room. Her eyes were moving around as if looking between people as they spoke, and then she brought up her hand and massaged the bridge of her nose. I figured she was trying to ignore whoever was in the room with her.

People being there with her in the first place meant that she was both tired and stressed at the moment.

' But if she was tired and deciding to go to bed... then why would she be stressed?' At first I figured that she had exhausted her mind while busying it with the case, but then glanced at the camera. She didn't do that while she was thinking about the case. Did I have something to do with the thoughts flitting through her complex mind?

I sighed and switched off the camera. If I did have something to do with whatever was going on in that room then I would find out tomorrow night. Until that time of night came around again and she woke up, I would work on the case.

' He had been in France when she was working on it with me there. That's the only way he could have figured out their relationship unless he had gotten lucky and somehow just 'met up' with Avent, who told him everything at will... or against it. No, the only way he could've known they had been together was if he had lived in Marseille, France and somewhere near where Jezebel had lived as Myles.' If Maverick had lived across the street from her then it wouldn't be too easy how he found out about the people in her life.

Now I had to put together how he had been able to follow her without her knowing and/or without losing control of his killing intent and starting another spree after all the years he spent simply following her and watching her.

Stalking her up until the day that felt 'just right' to him came around.

My eyes widened at a new realization.

'Did that mean that he lived nearby to where Jezebel and I used to live in order to keep up with everything at that time too?' There was no way that was possible. No one was that dedicated to ruining a person's life like this.

" Deneuve, what's going on? Have you started to see them too?" A laugh." Did you really finish off that red velvet cake Watari just brought in already?" That idle joke came from Jezebel, the half asleep woman who was apparently unfortunate enough to have a ticking time bomb of a schizophrenic father, a mother that acted like she cared but couldn't ever love her own daughter or husband, schizophrenia herself...

And now I just found out that he's been behind... pretty much all of it.

' Wait... if he used to live near us then... I could track him. Especially now that we have both this chip and an idea of where he lived when we lived in Tokyo.' Thanks to Jezebel, I had his personality and the points where he could be predictable. If I used them then-

" You found him didn't you?" Snapping my head in Jezebel's direction, I saw she had a cup of coffee cradled in her hands and her eyes were examining the results on the screen as I turned from her and scanned for answers.

" He lived near you when you were with Avent in France and he lived nearby us in Tokyo. Live by the people searching for you and they'll never find you." Something he must have learned while living next to his main target while she was growing up, after she moved and just last month.

" Figures." Briefly glancing at her, I had to admit I was surprised by her reply. I had expected her to react a bit more... well, surprised.

"No doubt he's moved now, though. This time he doesn't know where we are because Avent doesn't know where or who we are now. Like a stalemate. So many unknown pawns have been lined up that we can't see each other's King players. "

" You're using game terms again?" She shrugged.

" I believe it was you that once said that the result was the same. I can follow this with you. You, Light, and Maverick aren't the only ones that are childish in this aspect . We all see what is going on as a game of war. That... and we all have no intention of losing."

" You aren't in bed like you said you'd be. Is something wrong?" She shook her head.

" I just expect this case to be over soon... though, I also feel like I'm pushing because of my own selfishness."

" Even though people are dying? That isn't all selfish. I think it's actually quite normal actually."

" Never thought I'd hear a mention of me and normal in the same sentence."

" No one's really normal these days, Fleur." Hearing her laugh almost made me smile.

" Could you hand me that chip you took out of your phone?"

" Sure thing." She stood up and walked over to where she had left it. The bathroom counter. Just sitting there as if it played no role in our lives, and even now I find it amazing how one little scrap of metal could finish up a case that's been going on for months now.

Speaking of phone... I was going to have to get her another one... again.

" Can I ask you something?"

" Of course." We were both staring at the screen now as the virtual part of the search loaded.

" If you were locked in a room with this man and had the upper hand... would you kill him if you could?" A silence fell over the room and I heard her heave a sigh.

" I don't know. I think it depended on how sane I was at the time and how I felt. If he verbally provoked me to kill him for long enough then I'm sure I'd eventually breakdown and kill him if he didn't persuade me to kill myself first."

" Then I hope... it never comes to that." I whispered almost inaudibly.

" Me too, Law-kun... me too."

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

A table was thrown to the wall, where it splintered into smaller chunks. The room was the color of rage and adolescent anger with him there.

That bitch! Destroying her cell phone when she found out what he was doing before he could find out where she was exactly!

This crave for revenge was stronger and more demanding than all the other times. He needed to kill more of them in order for her to see and for him to get control over himself again.

There were several women nearby that were involved with that spawn of Lilith that was given the name of Chloe. He wanted to kill her, but then he wouldn't be able to mess with her anymore. He wouldn't be able to feed off of her growing insanity and self distrust.

Her guilt that she hardly showed to anyone.

Soon she'd have no one left but him to turn to since he accepted her, knew what she had and saw. Once all the others around her were dead... she'd trust him and like her father had killed her mother he'd kill her. Simply because she was just like her mother. She looked like her so much that it wouldn't be right if she didn't die the same way her mother did.

What he didn't know was that instead of getting rid of the chip entirely, she had just made it so he couldn't use it to find her whereabouts, and that right now... his were being pin-pointed. Maverick also had no idea that Jezebel knew more than he thought she knew about him.

The only thing that mattered to him was her suffering and he wasn't getting that right now. That was the problem. The only problem to him at least. That and he couldn't think of any way to kill her.

His eyes sparked.

But wait... Maverick didn't have to kill her when she could just do the job herself. She could easily do it all on her own if she had the right... push... when the right time came around and called for it.

For now, he had no choice but to find the seven heavenly virtues.


	6. Eleutherius

Eleutherius

Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim

In the last few hours Lawliet and I had been able to pinpoint Maverick's exact location, but also found that there was no evidence linking him to any of the crimes.

" Fucking neat freak." Passed through my lips when this information sank into my tissue of my brain, and then I took a look over my shoulder to find Susie watching me intently. So much for a child friendly language habit.

The idea of simply driving or flying over to the crime scenes, nosing around, and finding scraps of evidence, however small ourselves did come up, but... it came with one slight risk. That risk being Wilhelm Larmonte finding out where we lived again.

My eyes veered over to where Jezze was sitting. Selectively (and not to mention creepily) silent and forever ghosting around in my peripheral vision, she was currently situated on the back of the couch.

" Beg your pardon?" L asked, disrupting my hallucination for a moment.

" Not you. Maverick." I explained leisurely, looking back to the couch to see Jezze had moved again. With the fatigue that had drooped over me at a pace rivaling a turtle, I had gradually started to feel its effects take hold.

" Think about how Avent was found. Wilhelm is getting more desperate to satisfy his urges." Bastien started in a voice and tone I had no choice but to listen to from my own new spot laid out on the couch. I had forgotten how I'd gotten here, but that only meant I needed sleep.

" It is going to continue and get worse. You need to get there and asses the crime scenes before that time. I bet that he's on a plane to his next victim right now. Everyone of those people he killed... he killed because of you." Thanks for the reminder Jezze. This made her smile, and I huffed and frowned in response.

" L... Maverick's mad at me. He will soon let me know how mad he is through the bodies that are going to pop up next. They're all about to face the same end as Avent if they don't face a worse one first." In the middle of my mental wandering, I had started laughing, and hadn't even known until I saw the familiar expression on Deneuve's face every time I temporarily lost control of my actions.

I don't remember that night very well.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

After she drifted, I called for Watari to bring up a warm blanket for her and I discovered that I felt better knowing that she didn't drink herself to sleep like so many other nights.

Jezebel was feeling guilty again and there was no doubt in my mind that most of it was caused by her own mind. She was too hard on herself. I think we both knew how much she needed a break but wouldn't accept one until this man was caught. This wasn't doing any good to her already out of whack sleeping pattern and I don't think it really mattered to her.

I sent Watari out to collect any and all evidence he and a team of hired investigators that had no jurisdiction or ability to take over this case as their own could.

When I located Maverick's current whereabouts through his laptop, I found that he had moved out of the country and was now in the Netherlands. As good of news as this was to hear for purposes revolving around Jezebel, I knew that his reasons were purely to get her hopes up about him leaving her alone because he was only there to stalk someone else for awhile to kill him/her or them. This was the first time he took a trip to the Netherlands, so he must have a plan of some sort for when he got there.

Must already know who he's going after, where they live, and about how long it'll take for him to gain their trust before he kills them.

The next morning, I woke up in my seat and looked behind me to see if Jezebel was still snoozing on the couch in her rather open way to find she was. Her head wasn't facing me, but I knew she was asleep from the pace her small frame rose and fell with her deep breaths.

Watari had come back sometime after I fell asleep. This was something I had determined by the miniscule bags of strings, strands of hair, and the sort on the table beside me.

" So, we got something on him now?" The click and fizzle of a beer can told me she was awake before her voice did.

" If any of this is Larmonte's DNA... " I replied lowly as I picked one up and examined it. It was a thin, rather healthy looking strand of brown hair.

" Larmonte would have been about 40 or so by now, correct?" This couldn't be a hair from a man that old unless he had good genetics. It also occurred to me that it could belong to a woman with short brown hair.

" Do you have a description of what he looks like?" Questioning further may not have been a good idea, but it was necessary. In fact, I was surprised when I realized that I hadn't asked this very inquiry in the first place earlier on in the case.

" Yeah, brown hair and even browner eyes... they're so dark they look black. Demonic." Her voice got quieter when she explained the color of his eyes.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Violated. A sinking feeling mixed with the sickening sensation of having worms crawling beneath the skin of my arms, neck, and back. That's how thinking about Larmonte felt to me.

Suddenly Susie started screaming, and I screened my thoughts away from her... well, I attempted to... and failed. Guilt washed over me as I knew her cries were caused by my emotions from all those times I was even close to him. As a child sensitive to the nature of others, I had always disliked his company.

Taking a few heavy chugs from my beer, I turned away from L as I continued to describe Wilhelm Larmonte's physical person.

" He's about 5'10'' with relatively tan skin. His hair should probably be graying by now. He once told my dad, mom, and I that the men in his family went grey around their late thirties to early forties." Making my way towards where L was with the bits of evidence that had been discovered, I wondered if he had found something.

" Do any of the recent victims have short brown hair like this?" Holding the tiny baggie up in his strange way that made everything look fragile or as if it disgusted him, he glanced over his shoulder in a way that appeared almost curious. I carefully took it from him and looked it over myself.

" No, they don't." My muttering did not go unheard, and I noticed Deneuve's eyes on me.

" Do you suppose there's someone else involved? Or maybe it's useless animal fur?"

" This strand is too long to belong to an animal unless a dog was somehow involved. Only one woman had a dog and this hair wasn't found on her. This woman was also unmarried so it doesn't belong to a spouse... though maybe a boyfriend or lover." This was from the crime scene with the four dead women in a row. This threw me on a loop.

" Let's test it." Randomly popped out as I carried it over to a machine and, with tweezers, pulled out the strand, and placed it on a thin glass tray about two inches by one. Acting on what L had once taught me about this little mecha-ma-bob, I pressed a button and then about five before softly crashing onto the chair provided nearby. Pushing the swivel chair to a computer, I hit a few dozen keys and did a bit of mouse clicking until the scanner went to work. If this bit of DNA belonged to anyone with a criminal record, then they'd show up on here soon.

While that was going, I further nursed my beer and snacked on some pocky. Light brown eyes waning over to where L had once been, I jumped when I saw how close he was. To be more specific, he was right behind me, hovering over me with his grey eyes on the computer monitor. In its glow they seemed to turn blue. Arms wrapped around my shoulders, and then his head bent down towards my right to rest in the crook of my neck. What was he doing? Was he planning something or was he just a little too depraved of sugar?

" What's wrong, L?" Stiffening when I felt his warm breath tickle along my neck, my face started to heat up and I found that the goose bumps prickling along my flesh to be welcome.

" Nothing at all." Didn't match what he was doing until I realized he was feather kissing up my neck, slyly moving behind my ear making me giggle. It was a strange place to be ticklish, but he already knew that.

" I just think... you need to take a break." He softly whispered. So that was his scheme. The hands on my shoulders held me tighter, almost possessively. A smile worked its way to my face as I sent a look in his direction.

" Are you trying to seduce me?" It was hard to talk already, but he made it even worse when he nipped my ear, and I had my answer. L did, after all, know where I was most sensitive. Then I decided that one little break wouldn't be too selfish of me.

Right?

Innocent kisses turned into a hot make out session, which moved to the couch and from there switched to an even hotter love making... well, I never was able to recall just how long that lasted. The best part by far was the after shower, where it had somehow gone back to being... something resembling innocent...after awhile. It was one of those things that anyone in the situation would have just normally felt like staying there forever. Or at least until the hot water ran out.

I didn't know what I missed the most from those months before I had my two year leave, but I could figure that out later. Right now, snuggled up in an over sized fluffy robe next to Lawliet, I was at peace and genuinely happy. So happy, in fact, that I ended up drifting off to sleep all over again.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Although I was comfortable, and as greatly opposed as I was to getting out of bed while Jezebel slept soundly here... I had to let her sleep while I untangled this case. Using the tactics I had to wasn't exactly my first plan to help her distress, but in the end, it had turned out to be the most beneficial for the both of us.

Taking the time to pull the blanket up to cover her shoulders, I placed a hot cup of coffee with caramel blended in on the bedside table for when she woke up.

The first thing I noticed was that the DNA scanner's movements had ceased. The next was that the picture was almost nothing like how Jezebel had described.

He was younger for one thing. Pale skin, light blue eyes, and slicked back shaggy brown hair. This man couldn't have been any older than Fleur. Their name caught me, it was the same as the one she had given me... but his held the title of 'II' after it.

This could have only meant that Wilhelm Larmonte the first had, at some point while Jezebel's parents were still in living existence... had spawned a child.

This was, unfortunately, where I needed Jezebel. As I stood to move the cart closer to me, I noticed that quite some time had passed and that Jezebel was up. Not only was she up but she was frozen in place. Tracing her line of vision with my own eyes, I saw that she was staring at the son of her life's troubles.

" I passed him once in the street when we lived in Tokyo. I hadn't even realized..." She uttered as she started shaking. So much for helping to rid her of stress or asking her if she slept well after I had solved the case...she really didn't need this. Thankfully, she had taken the time to get dressed this time instead of walking out here in nothing but a robe... or nothing, which she had done on several irrelevant occasions.

" He doesn't exactly look very much like him, so I can't say I blame you. You never knew about him either?" If anyone could have known him...

" No, he was never mentioned."

" Do you think they are working together?"

" If they are, it isn't equally." This caught my attention. Fleur's eyes stayed on the image on the screen as if to memorize it so that she wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

" What do you mean?" This question appeared to make her less comfortable, although she sat down with more confidence than she had walked out of my room with. It was a delayed reaction, but it had become clear to her that this was her time to flaunt her knowledge. Not even for the sake of showing off but because she was needed. I had a feeling she enjoyed being needed every once in awhile.

I had to admit it was a bit odd for her to sit on the floor when there was a couch there. She also had her eyes set on the ground. Was she drawing out the image with her mind before she drew in out for me while she explained it?

Collecting a marker from a drawer, she sat back down, and lay on her stomach. When she began to draw it out, my curiosity got the better of me and I found myself walking over to her after printing out a picture of the Wilhelm boy.

" Okay, so I told you about his type, right? The kind of person he is and that sort of thing?" I nodded and she continued without missing a beat.

" In a team like this one is the leader while the other one is used as the pawn. They are father and son, and since it is likely that his son has ASPD as well... it is difficult right now to tell which one is the one in charge and which one is the pawn. They both think too highly of themselves as individuals to think of the other as an equal. Blood or no. Normally, in a situation like this the oldest is the one that is in charge..." Fleur pointed to a doodle on the floor that described it.

" This is something that we can't count on though because the chances are that the younger one is more capable of keeping up with what they have been doing. Stalking, following... things that involve a lot of movement. Either he-" She pointed at the one that was labeled 'older Wil'."-is the one pulling the strings of his son." She nodded to the other labeled 'younger Wil'." Or... it's the other way around." Fleur then drew arrows going back and forth from the two.

" Of course, this is just a guess. Like anyone else, I could be wrong. Other factors could be involved because I haven't seen the slightest trace of the 'older Wil' aside from his offspring." Her intentionally spiteful hiss of 'offspring' made her thoughts of this news very obvious.

" No matter how it turns out to be, they will still both need to be detained and separated from one another. The chances that the younger Wil has ASPD as well is highly unlikely, but who and I to really say something like that?" It was true, a female having schizophrenia was uncommon.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Temporarily setting aside the fact that L had used sex as a way to get me to relax, I focused on this new found information. We had another suspect and he was my age. Chances are that he was used or even willingly for his own evil or perverted reasons... followed me wherever I went while I was growing up. Although it was true that the older a person with this state of mentality got the more experienced he or she was... but it was also true that younger minds learned things faster and could easily appear to have as much, if not more, experience in the same areas depending on when they started learning it and all those other variables.

As for the sex... I really couldn't say I felt angry at L. I mean, for one thing, I loved him dearly and trusted him more than I had originally thought possible for myself. Plus, Lawliet wasn't making it awkward so I was very appreciative of that. I had finished my coffee and gotten dressed in a simple black blouse with a lace up adjuster sewn into the back and some dark blue shorts with black vine designs winding around like it as if it were the castle out of Sleeping Beauty. My half on and half off belt was purple with black studs in rows and columns going around, the studs themselves had green paint splatter in them, clashing attractively with the dark purple of the belt itself. My socks made me look like as though I had just jumped into a pile of clean socks, gotten up, and walked out. One was white with blue polka dots of many different shades and went up to almost my knee, while the other went up to reach my thigh and was striped with yellow and purple. The purple stripes had white circles and the yellow ones were covered with pink zigzags.

" When do you think they started working together?" L asked from his spot on the floor next to me.

" Well, this case has been going on for about a year and a half...but I'm sure that they've been together for almost 15 years or so years. That case involving all those college students dying after I left could have been his first test. To see how good he could do at my age after two years of... training. Teacher and student sort of thing." Normally after hearing that someone was training their kid to kill people while at the same time thinking of them as beneath them, people would be shocked, but since it was L that held the indifferent face that was no doubt hiding resentment towards these two...I could understand.

" Am I in trouble?" He muttered his inquiry so innocently that I was caught off guard and ended up giving him a ' What the Fuck?!' look. Then I realized what he was talking about.

" I don't know, Deneuve... that was awfully sneaky even if it helped us to unwind." Was my jokingly dubious reply, and I tried to keep my face stoic but his scolded child's eyes made me have to close my eyes. Dropping my head was the only way I could avoid his gaze in the slightest. Killing two birds with one stone did sound like something he'd do.

" How about we set this topic aside for later? There's something more severe that we need to deal with right now. Don't you think?" I was beginning to wish that the Task Force was working on this case with us too... but only because I figured then L would have other people to worry about besides myself. I felt like the bad guy right now and I didn't know how it ended up being that way. Somehow, L had actually found a way to unzip my mental shield and decipher my thoughts on this subject. I'm sure he understood, though. Bringing something so intimate and personal onboard with us while on this case was something I had been trying to avoid... and it seemed that L had felt the same about it, but felt that he had decided to use it as a last resort when he thought it was necessary. I was just glad that he was willing to agree with my reasoning and move on for now.

" Do you think that they are living together?"

" Yes, it would only give the other the advantage if they lived separately. They do not fear the other but would still prefer to be able to keep tabs on them regularly." This seemed to suffice as he nodded and nibbled on a chocolate tart.

" Should we call him out and let them know what we know or shall we let them wonder until this case is solved? We have evidence that could get a warrant on their arrest."

" Only one of their arrests. It'll separate them and if one is in question then the other will be even more careful and continue on with the killing's themselves. Besides, aren't they out of the country right now?"

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

7 weeks later

Something I had learned about Jezebel was that sometimes she gave away how she felt about something in her accent. It was rather charming and I noted that the closer we got to catching the Mavericks, the more obvious her French accent became. If I was correct, she was afraid. Another thing was her erratic emotional spouts, they appeared to be coming up more frequently.

We still had nothing to put them both away and Jezebel had made it clear that the other would run away if they found out how much we knew or looked them up on the internet.

" Ok." The strawberry blonde next to me murmured and I was confused about whether she was speaking to me or someone else in the room that I couldn't see.

" Who are you talking to?"

" You." She started, sounding against herself whilst refusing to look at me." I have been thinking about things lately and this seems to be the only way." Before I could ask her what she meant, Watari's voice clicked onto the intercom and a monitor turned on to allow his silhouette to come into view.

" L, another body was found not too long ago. There's also a note on their person."

" Do you have any information about them? Who are they?" I pressed with a finger on the intercom button.

" I'm afraid not. The coroner was unable to identify them. I suggest that you not eat while you look at this." The screen changed to show what he meant. From the picture itself it was hard to tell if it was a human being or not let alone the gender if it was human. Glimpsing over at Jezebel, it seemed that she had rushed silently out of the room. My eyes went back to the screen, and I held down the button once more.

" Thank you, Watari." After that I moved on towards the door that was partly ajar, and stepped out of the room. On the ground, rocking back and forth, with her hands over her mouth as she cried... was Jezebel.

Not being very adept at this sort of thing, I closed the door, and stood there for a moment. Using the silence to ponder what to do, absentmindedly pulling at my lower lip with my thumb. All I could think to do in the end was crouch down next to her. She scooted closer to me and wrapped her arms around me, her legs shifted to be curled up sideways. I felt the moisture that shoulder of my shirt was steadily collecting.

" What did the note say?" Was what was just barely able to make out of her already muffled mumble.

" Kindness." I took the time to let the one word sink in before I got the urge to ask her a question, but I held it back and decided to wait until she was capable of talking and listening with more of a sound mind rather than the state of mind she was letting leak out her eyes at the time.

" Just that?" Her voice cracked a little.

" Yes, just that." Hopefully, my voice sounded soft enough to calm her down. She sniffled and removed her head from my now damp shoulder.

" Sorry." She whispered with a slight cough at the end.

" For what? Just because you don't know-"

" No, not that." In that, I learned another thing. When we talked about the case, this quirk filled adult woman next to me was Fleur, and while we took some time off and were exchanging words(among other things)... she was Jezebel. I chose to change the subject.

" Is it safe for you to have other names that you go by?" Since she was a schizophrenic and they were easily influenced by other personalities... but she hardly changed personalities intensely enough for this to really be something to worry about.

Yet the mess of a girl before me was clearly Jezebel Shanton letting herself be human.

" You know, in its own L-ish way... that was really sweet." There was a smile on her face now and she even chuckled a bit. This reaction wasn't what I had been expecting, but I was pleased to see her jovial expression... as odd as it was at a time like this.

" Forget the vulnerable blubbery apology... I'm going to go research possible explanations for why Maverick chose 'Kindness' to put on this note. Mom never knew a woman named Kindness." We sauntered back into the room, and she took a better look at the picture before she escaped to her virtual sanctuary to hunt for answers, while I stared at the body.

" How do you think they died, Fleur-chan? What do you think he did?" Without moving her head away from the glowing screen, she answered almost instantly.

" Beaten and raped if they were female, and then burned until crispy after death... Hard to tell, I'm just using what I know... in other words, he's like Bundy in that aspect. Although, Bundy didn't have a kid- that I know of- to train to be like him. Well, that and Bundy didn't focus on one person's life to fuck up for just about half of his life." I guessed that she had learned about Ted Bundy while she was studying ASPD. Not a word was spoken between us for about another hour or two.

" Now it makes sense."

" Find something?" Leaning over her shoulder, I noticed that Fleur had found a site that bordered on religious lines.

" Yeah, it turns out that Maverick really does choose people according to the meaning of their names. Remember the 'mock copy cat victims' from almost half a year ago?" She was talking about the four women that were killed at relatively the same time.

" What about them?"

" The one that had the seven deadly sins written all over her... one of those sins was Envy. It's a long shot, but it's the only thing I could find that makes any sense at all." This made her sound like she was trying to convince herself rather than me.

" How are we even sure that these people are connected to the ones involved in our case? This is an unusual break from their pattern, is it not?"

" Maybe there was never a real pattern to begin with?"

" No, too much fell into place for you to be wrong about that." Going back to where I was before, I gathered up a plate of strawberry short cake.

" No... I think... that one of the Mavericks stepped back to let the other play for awhile."

" So, only one of them has an obsession with the one and three pattern? Does this mean that the one doing this now is Maverick Junior?" I turned to face her in time to watch her pick up a sugar cube and throw it at the wall without moving, where it ricocheted and skipped across the floor a few times before it lost its momentum. Staring at it over her shoulder, her gaze then moved to a spot on the wall for a few seconds, where the glint in her brown eyes was filled with frustration and annoyance. Here was where I had a chance to comment on her actions, but after thinking about it, I decided that not doing so would be the best idea.

" Why won't they leave me alone, Law-kun?" Desperation lined her voice, and I was afraid she might cry again, but instead she did something I was expecting.

Within mere seconds of her asking that question, a strikingly high pitched shriek filled the main room of the new building.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Why wasn't he answering my question? Probably because he couldn't. I understood that much but now he was staring at me like I was on drugs.

" What?" It wasn't like I'd never questioned him about it before.

" You just screamed. You don't recall doing that at all?" Fucking shiterrific. Well, at least I knew why he had been giving me a strange look now.

" Guess not. Thanks for telling me, though... instead of leading me to believe that I was fine and you were the one acting like the bat shit nutcase." Keeping the last part under my breath was something I had done even though I meant it in a good and honest way. I guess I just hated how right it was.

Shaking that from my mind, I figured that looking for who this person was and figuring out just how they died would help me to feel less depressed and irritated. It would also help me to ignore Bastien's- I glanced over to see if he was still there- only to find he had evaporated for now... okay, then the disembodied chants of ' They're going to find you', 'That's gonna be you someday', and other haunting things like that. These voices were the ones that had snuck out from the ever so slight opening of one of those doors in my mind, and I knew that the one that had played specter and unlocked this door was Jezze herself. In a dream I had watched her do it, thinking it was me. The only thing left for me to feel at times like these was fear. I was fearful of ending up locked behind the wrong door and never being able to pick the lock or bust it down before there was a cave in. These stupid, menial, incessant words and phrases were the cause of my mental and emotional outbursts. My cries for help when the only thing that could help me... was-

" You're still searching?" Inhaling deeply as if breathing in life for the first time in decades, I felt like I had just come back from some exorcised possession. I wanted to laugh at L's question because if it wasn't for my own craving for knowledge I'd still be searching for the skeleton key that could lock up all the entrances to Hell in my mind.

Right now, I had to remember that I was going through the spider web of information to find out who this person was and just how they had died.

That was until Watari had faxed in the coroner's latest report. This one had mixed up the tactics of several classic murderers. She had been beaten and raped, like Bundy had done to his victims. Maverick had apparently then gone Jack the Ripper on this woman by cutting off her breasts and mutilating her lady parts before deep frying her. We didn't have any usable genetic material to identify her with.

" Did your mother know any women whose names meant 'kindness'?" I couldn't fathom how I had forgotten that fact. I had even been the one to tell him that Maverick believed in the meaning of names.

" Yes, she did." Hands gaining what seemed like a mind of their own, they swept over the keyboard of their own will, and I soon found what I had spent so much time hunting for... our Jane Doe's ID.

" Adelle Nestle, thirty... and surprise, surprise." I sighed." She graduated from college while Chloe was working there and even had her as a teacher. Adelle's body was found here when she was in the Netherlands? Where exactly was she found?" Lawliet's hesitation to reply had me brace for the worst.

" On her own doorstep." I concentrated on his forehead, trying to find the rest. He stared back just as hard, but gave up when he realized just how much practice I've had when it came to zoning out in one place.

" She was found in a box on her own doorstep by her husband of three years." Kind of sounded like something out of 'Clue', huh?

" We've heard of worse happening. Nothing I see in my life could affect me as much as what I've been put through in my own life. What I see and what I've felt are, thankfully, two totally different things." Saying that left a bad taste in my mouth, so I grabbed a plastic fork and jabbed it into L's piece of cake, making sure to miss the strawberry, and ohm nohm'd it. The cake had a sweet strawberry filling and the frosting on top was a mixture of rich cream and strawberry.

" You know, if I was able to live on sweets alone, I so would, especially if they were this mouthgasmic." Expecting him to do so, L paused and looked at me curiously.

" Mouthgasmic?" A grin spread across my face.

" Yeah, it's a word that describes when something is so absolutely delicious that your mouth feels like it's having an orgasm." When he actually began to visibly think over what I had said, I couldn't resist giggling a little with a shake of my head.

L had, without even trying, just assisted me in lightening the once darkened mood in the bipolar room.

" Law-kun."

" Hm?" He side glanced.

" I love you." Then I stole another piece of his cake.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

After an additional fourteen weeks went by another two bodies were found. Temperance Mason and Caridad Jenson. Both were young married women that had been studying in the Netherlands, when they had gone missing, and then later found in ice chests, by their husbands or friends. Furthermore, both had notes by their bodies as well. One reading 'Restraint' while the other said 'Charity'. So far, all three words had obviously been typed out

in size thirty-six Monotype Corsiva font.

Fleur and I had caught the pattern of one victim popping up every seven weeks. My expressive twenty year old partner had noticed that he was not only going along the opposites of the Seven Deadly Sins, but that, more specifically, he was going in alphabetical order of the sin rather than the virtue that opposed it. First envy, then gluttony, and finally (so far) greed... so we knew lust was next. Though, we still didn't know who he'd pick for it.

At one point I felt it only right to ask.

" What are we waiting for?"

" Maverick to get back." Came her simple response.

" How about we move then?"

" Too risky." Her retort was quicker than expected.

" For what?"

" Them finding us again." So that was it... she was afraid of them still.

" I know it sounds terrible... but sitting here and waiting for them to get back is the safest thing we can do. Plus..." She trailed off.

" Plus?" I urged.

" Plus, it is only a matter of time before the student overthrows master and proves his worth by killing him. The survivor will be thrown in prison and put to death. Prepare for them to try the insanity plea."


	7. Faustus

Faustus

Fortuna est quis venio ut paratus opportunus vicis

 

Twenty-seven weeks later

":Don't fall asleep at night, Jezebel. It isn't safe.:" Artois Shanton gently warned the young five year old girl in his lap.

": Why nawt?:" She asked him with her large brown doe eyes on him as she patiently waited for an answer.

": Just don't, sweetie.:"

 

 

A year and a half later

 

 

": Daddy, you're always telling me not to sleep at night but you never tell me why.:" The nearly seven year old girl wondered.

" :The man next door is evil and looking for you. He can't find you if you sleep in the morning. He is out to get us all, but won't go looking for you until the rest of us are dead. This man is like your mother but he is not an angel like her... he is a demon. A devil.:"

" Fleur... please, snap out of it." As if I had woken up the same age I had dreamt of being. I hugged L's mid- section tightly. For all these past months, we had been sleeping like this. I wasn't shocked to find that I had fallen asleep again.

" You've were talking in your sleep."

" You're so warm." I cuddled up to his side. He let it be quiet for almost a minute. Almost.

" What did he tell you?" Had I really been talking in my sleep?

" You mean Artois?" Leaving my eyes closed, I focused on the low rumble of his voice.

" Yes. You asked him why you were only supposed to sleep in the morning." This was proof he had heard me." Stretching my legs, I rolled away from him and strained the rest of my joints until I felt all movable again. Then, grudgingly, I opened my eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them. Took me awhile to realize what I had dreamt of.

" He was warning me of Wilhelm who he called 'the man next door'. My father did have his sane and caring moments every now and then. He also had his own way of telling me things." Slow realization was still realization.

" Does that mean that he knew of Maverick as well?" I whispered. How much did Maverick know exactly? He'd been inside the house and seen my dad's collection of knives... but that doesn't mean that he can plan out a way for things to fall into place for him the way they did, does it?

" Your Dad loved you, Fleur." Susie smiled, and I sat up hurriedly, startled by her sudden appearance. She was sitting at the foot of the bed in her bunny pajamas. Her trademark stuffed bunny was practically glued to her arms.

It was odd, though. Almost as soon as I knew of her presence...my mind wandered away. Had it all been planned? Every little thing? Did Maverick plan not only for Artois to kill Chloe... but for me to kill Artois as well? If so, what else had he planned? I already knew about all the school registration for counseling there and he had that done in order to gain victims before this time came around, but his son should have a harder time. We had one week until all seven of these victims were officially dead. What was next? What else was this monster planning? What else had he planned? When I ended up in the orphanage, going where I did after I got out, and/or my meeting Avent?

": He watches and knows your every move.:" Jezze's attempt to escalate my paranoia actually succeeded for a moment because of how much I feared and hated the idea of someone or something knowing my every movement- predicting it like some sort of juvenile game.

Moaning, I dropped my head back onto my pillow, letting it then roll in Lawliet's direction.

" I think I figured it all out." Scooting under the covers with me, I almost heard him prepare to listen to me.

" Chloe knew what he was as soon as he met her and told Artois. With them both knowing, to Wilhelm they both had to die because they were both threats to him. Artois told me... in his own way, making me a threat as well. He could have killed me then, but why do that when he could make us all kill each other. He turned us into dominoes, lined us up, and starting with Artois, flicked them all down... there's a thing, though, a gap in the dominoes. Deciding that having more to play with would be funner... he placed my domino at the end of the line-up. He plans on killing me and everyone else that is connected to me. This story he's telling, is the story of the beginning, middle, and early ending... of my life. To him, at least. Maverick doesn't realize it, but he's scared, paranoid. It's not just me this time."

" Now we know then." Was all Deneuve said in reply.

" Pardon?"

" If what you say is true... then the older Wilhelm considers the younger Wilhelm a threat and vice versa if he told his son, the younger Wilhelm, about the way he worked and why he did things. He could be rethinking giving up his 'throne' just yet. It doesn't matter if it's his friend, family member, or just another sucker. There's no difference in his eyes. They all go under the same category. He really is like Light." This last part was a whispered notice.

" He wants you to know he's after you." L continued, sitting up and going off into his own world much like I was accustomed to doing.

" He wants you to be just as scared as he is. Maybe-just maybe, he's hoping you lose it and commit suicide before he gets to you."

" I don't think he's hoping I do anything like that. No, I think he's planning for me to be killed by one of his next victims or something like that. If it's going to end... he wants it to be something crazy brilliant."

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Usually when father and son had a disagreement, they could figure a way to sort it out. Unfortunately, this pair of father and son weren't like most in the world or even the country, so instead of sitting down at their home and talking it out or getting in a short lasting fist fight... things went like this.

" Okay, I let you finish off the virtues like you wanted and I've got to say you did pretty well. Nothing short of proving that you are, in fact, my son." Wilhelm Senior's voice was monotonous and unimpressed.

" What is it?" His son's voice was bored and bordering on annoyed. The way they felt about each other was obvious and almost more than mutual. One would just as likely slice the other's throat open as soon as say hi to him.

" Do you know who your mother is?"

" You know I don't because you never told me."

" Well, you got your eyes from your grandmother on my side. You have mostly my blood running in you."

" What are you getting at?"

" You mother was Chloe Shanton." At the sound of the name, Wilhelm Junior got to his feet and stared down his father half heartedly.

" So, you raped her and she had me, got rid of me in an orphanage, where you found me, and then you had her killed?" This sounded like something his father would do and wait until the last second to tell him.

" I wanted a kid after my own heart." He laughed.

" The only reason we have hearts is to live, so you aren't really saying much. I think it's obvious enough that you wanted a natural born killer, Dad."

" Do you know why I took you in?" Switching the subject, Wilhelm Senior began to pace.

" So you could raise me to be like you." Such was the answer that made the most sense.

" Only part of the reason." He sneered back.

" How about you explain then." He didn't care about the answer, and Wilhelm Senior knew that too, but of course, he had to say it now.

" Jezebel doesn't know that you are her half brother. My plan is for you to let her figure it out on her own and then it'll be a show for us as she tries to tell you that you have a second chance and all that corny crap. Then while you act like you might be changing her ways, which will give you a chance to get close to her, and then you can kill her."

" After gaining her trust?" He was always doing things that way, but he had never told his son exactly why. His father had figured that all he needed to know was that he did it and everything else was unimportant information.

" Don't you think it'll be easier to gain her trust by making it seem like you are the one doing it and when I go to the authorities and 'report' you, she'll question me, get out of me that her and I have the same mom, and be all glad and shit that she has family still? Can't I kill her awhile after that?" Also, usually families don't talk out how they're going to lure a person in before they kill them.

For no reason other than because he felt like it, Wilhelm Senior walks over to his son and wraps his hands around his throat. His grip was like an iron bar, crushing the young man's windpipe shut, but the younger Wilhelm had other things mapped out in his mind, and stabbed his father's arm with a pocket knife he had bought that very morning, twisting the metal, and severing blood vessels near an artery. Words didn't really affect people of their kind aside from information being helpful. They both took the chance that if they ended up killing the other and the cops found them that they could just plea self defense and that was that. To them, strolling out of the police station free of guilt with hidden blood on their hands wasn't anything all that big to them. The other's life meant nothing to them. The other meant nothing to them. Blood didn't matter and if anything it gave them a reason to want the other dead.

In its own twisted way they were fighting not only to establish who was alpha and who was beta, but they were also itching to kill the other to see who would get to kill Jezebel.

At one point a gun got involved and then there was a life and death struggle...

Then a shot rang out.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

There was no way. This threw us off completely. There was nothing here that we could use for any reason. No name or form of ID. No note giving us even the slightest hint as to who they could be. Just zilch, nil, nada... and that was including the gender.

To make matters worse, there was a bullet in their stomach. That tiny little crunched up piece of shrapnel lodged in their gullet was enough to make us all lost. Was it a copy cat? How could it have been when we never let it out to the press that they had been beaten before their body was transformed into what was now a pile of roasted people meat?

" This is rather unusual, is it not?" Lawliet started, and I turned to him, listening eagerly.

" Think of this... we have two different patterns. One that goes by the numbers one and three and another that works in sevens or just out of the order that the first one works in. Let us go out on a limb and say that the one that is subconsciously obsessed with the first pattern is the older Wilhelm. Say he let the younger Wil 'play his game' for awhile, but then decided that it was time to cut him off." He sat in his swivel chair and I could almost hear the hair on my arms stand on end as I put two and two together.

The sound of a domino dropping in the back of my mind made me flinch.

" They finally did it. This is one of them..." My voice was small and quiet.

As if just looking at it caused me pain, I backed as far away from the screen as I could, and escaped into the nearest bathroom, where I was glad that my hair was already tied back. I hadn't cut it in awhile and it now reached past my butt, which was beginning to bother me.

I didn't know if it was a physical reaction to some psychological fear or just an upset stomach but the result was the same either way.

When I was three, Wilhelm Larmonte moved into the house next door and whenever he visited, he'd threaten my life either physically or verbally. All it took was a few visits or so during that time up until I was seven, for the effects of what he had done to sink in and breed thoughts and nightmares that terrified me beyond all rational reason.

Even dead when we had no idea which one of them it was... it was still someone involved with the disturbance of my mind. Sometimes I wondered if I would've ended up schizophrenic like my dad if I had never been thrown around literally and metaphorically by people like that.

People like my mom, dad, and (myself) next door neighbor were the exact purposes for my studying psychology. It didn't seem to matter that I had studied it, though, since all I obtained from it was the reason why I had schizophrenia and that it wasn't my fault for having it.

Well, that and how to avoid people like Maverick... there was only one now. The threat was just as bad though.

Especially if it was Wilhelm the second on that screen.

With my skin leaping, I scrambled out of the room, ran past L with a quick 'good night', and shot into the elevator. Finding the body of somebody related to one of the killers meant that the other was in question already and I wanted nothing to do with it. I didn't want to see or hear the slightest essence of one of them because I knew I'd feel everything all over again.

Picking a room to hide in randomly, I locked it as many times as it would let me and headed towards the shower.

' I'm sorry, L.' I was such a fucking coward.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Jezebel had obviously put two and two together. It was only an expected reaction from someone that had dealt with so much danger in her life. This only proved that her survival instincts were working, although a bit stronger than I had thought they would. Probably didn't take a voice or hallucination to let her know what one of their bodies meant.

" Which one was it, Watari?" Not wanting to make matters worse for her but also making sure she didn't hurt herself, I found which room she was staying in.

" It would appear that the younger Larmonte was killed. His father is currently in interrogation." That was because when a member of the family is murdered, the family members are automatically suspects until the real person responsible was found.

Impulse took over and I held down the intercom button again.

" Watari, I would like for you to go to where he's being interrogated and bring the laptop with you."

" You want to interrogate him?"

" Yes, and I'm also going to connect the live video feed, so I'd like you to have the laptop facing him." I replied as I put on a mask that covered the almost all of my face, stopping at just below my nose. Just because he was going to be put to death soon didn't mean that I was going to let him see who I was this whole time. Besides, it was his son that had probably really seen me if even he ever had.

When he came into view, I recognized him immediately. The image on a screen nearby and the person in front of me were one and the same. The look on the man's face was one that looked amazingly like a person distraught over the death of a loved one. Words from Fleur's own mouth as well as words from her book came to mind when I looked upon him.

' People like this lack remorse and just about every other human feeling. They feel nothing but the most basic of animal instincts.'

 

Selecting a large plate of various sweets and fruits, I pressed the 'record' button and started on the ohagi.

" Hello, Wilhelm." Apparently, he disproved of my eating while we talked, and even frowned for a second, but that second was enough to let me know that he really had been acting sad about the death of his son.

" Who are you?" He looked upset, but his voice sounded more annoyed than anything. Intentionally tilting my head to the side, I let him know that I picked up on this odd combination.

" How rude of me... I'm L." I found that wearing a mask also made it safer for me to glance over at Jezebel's camera. By now she was out of the shower and had begun drinking. This was, no doubt the beginning of another alcohol binge that was going to go on until she passed out on her bed.

Holding back a sigh, I knew it was better than her hurting herself in a more drastic and immediate way.

" I've heard of you, you're called the greatest detective in the world." Noting the way he said it, he made it sound like I didn't deserve the title.

" It's nice to meet you. I'm sorry that we had to meet under these circumstances, but your son is dead and was found outside of your doorstep when you were already a suspect to these cases... care to explain?"

" Haven't other people died in the same way? Seven other people, I believe."

" Yes, innocent people trying to live their lives. It is rather sad, isn't it? Yet, you don't seem to show much of any sort of emotion when you know about your father's death that happened rather recently." He had gauze around his arm, wrapped thickly up from his wrist to elbow. His eyes reminded me of the picture examples I had seen in Fleur's book, when I had been reading the chapter on psychopaths.

Hours were spent as I asked him questions that were normally asked during interrogations like these. The only things I could really go on was the fact that he had no alibi for the time and that the neighbors had heard them fighting, but had shrugged it off and not reported it because it was something that was regularly heard from their living place. Well, there was that and the knife that had been found hidden in the cushion of their couch that had enough blood on it to tell us who had been stabbed by it. Maverick appeared to have an answer for everything that was brought up aside from his alibi and the reason why the bloody knife had been hidden.

The next night, I was sure to have the information that I had collected from the questioning ready for viewing before Jezebel trudged in groggily. With a cup of what smelled like freshly brewed coffee in one hand and a water bottle filled with what was probably orange juice in the other, she shuffled in my direction with half awake eyes.

" I wasn't expecting you to be up for at least another hour." It was only five- thirty at night and as of late, Jezebel usually didn't get up until around seven... if not later.

" Neither did I and I tried to sleep for longer, but we see how that went. I think the moon woke me up with complaints that the stars were being too loud. All in such a hurry to come out." Her words and her thoughts were more disorganized than what was habitual of Jezebel Shanton. She must not have liked what she said because she changed the subject.

" Which one was it?" It was hard to tell whether or not she was capable of dealing with the news either way. Having it already be perfectly clear to me just how much she feared them didn't exactly have me rushing to tell her.

" Are you sure you want to know?" She positioned the cup of coffee down in front of me and switched the hand with the orange juice in it.

" Yes, and I'm..." Pausing only to open the cap of her orange juice bottle, she then carried on with what she was saying after a deep mouthful of air.

" And I'm sorry for my irrational actions last night." Fleur took a drink." The thing is that I've finally come to understand that the only way for me to get over these plaguing bouts of SIDS is to face it head on and to...persist and assist." Something wasn't clear to me

" I understand most all of that aside from one thing. May I ask what SIDS is?" Either she was scrambled up again she knew something I didn't.

" Sudden illogical dread syndrome." Her reply was frivolous as if it made perfect sense to her and it was only right that it would.

" Very well then. Please, have a seat... and thank you very much for the coffee." Taking a rather noisy sip of my coffee, I was pleased to find its taste sweet and even hinted with strawberry syrup.

" I had a feeling that you didn't get enough sleep last night and if you had... that you slept as well as I did. I hope you didn't have any nightmares."

" You had nightmares?" It made me sick sometimes, although I didn't allow myself to show it around her since I knew how Jezebel felt about me worrying about her. The kind of people I resented most were the kind that gave people grief for their own personal gain.

She pretended that she had never heard the question and instead went scouring through the video tapes, in search for the tape lying in the open on the table by the small televisions. I almost smiled before picking up the video myself and playing it. With a huff and a pout she followed me, her long multicolored hair was once again tied back lazily yet strictly, and it was evident that she wasn't fond of it falling into her face.

" It's nothing I can't deal with, Law-kun. The sooner we find where this guy muddled up, the sooner I can get most of my personal shit in order." Taking a seat in the chair next to her, I felt her take me hand in one of hers.

The movie took time during just the first look through and then even more when Jezebel wanted to look it over again, saying that she wanted to make sure she didn't miss anything. During that second run of the video, she paused it, and squinted while inattentively leaning closer to the screen.

" Is he wearing contacts?" Wasn't quite the first thing I had expected to pop out of her mouth. Then again it was possible for her to know something I didn't with her having known him at one point in her life. When I looked more closely at the screen, I saw what she had seen. The screenshot was of Wilhelm's face, a close up to check his reaction to a question I had asked. Moving it to a larger screen, I had the picture blown up so I could better magnify his eyes. Sure enough there was a visible line barely a centimeter around the outside of his pupils.

" Is there a particular reason as to why you are so interested in this?"

" If I remember correctly... Wilhelm the first never even had contacts suggested to him when he went to the eye doctor. His vision was basically perfect without them. "My eyes went to her when I caught the difference in her voice. It was only a slight change, but I knew it meant the beginning of something more so I waited. The brown eyes that had once been so intent on the video now seemed more interested in the blown up screenshot.

" Does that tan look natural to you?" I was right. She'd find everything now.

" Did you get that table in the interrogation room wiped for prints? He touched that table with his fingers a few times."

" Yes, they're on the table over there." She scrambled over to the table and started it up. From there, about four million images started to flash before her. With a well sated look on her face, she almost trotted back over to where I was.

" Well, what do you think?"

" I think we identified our suspect as the wrong person. Did you notice his bandaged arm?" She nodded.

" Yeah, he said he'd been cut deeply but there was no blood, even dry blood, anywhere on the gauze. A recent deep cut like that doesn't heal that quickly. But his tan looks like a spray tan. I think we have Wilhelm the second up there."

" About twenty- two." I mumbled.

" Huh?"

" His possible age. He looks about twenty-two... under that make-up, of course."

" That's rather specific." Pointing to a spot on the screen, I showed her what looked like a clump of cover up.

" He didn't mention anything like this during our conversation."

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

L knew I didn't want to be there. That haunting face had me feeling sick, and all three of my non-existent 'friends' were present as invisible evidence of my stress.

Rubbing my neck and coughing a little was what happened next. It started as something little, anyways. From there my gasps for oxygen progressed. What was this?

" Your mother was a whore, you know? I had my way with her before she even met your father. She's just like me, you know. She can't ever love you or your father." As if he were simply making small talk with me, the hands around my throat confused and scared me. What was this man doing? Didn't he know he could kill me?

Shaking me and then throwing me to the ground, he went on speaking as I coughed incessantly in a desperate attempt to gain my breath.

" She thought she could keep the child she had with me away from me." A laugh boomed, and I squeezed myself into a tighter ball on the floor." But I found him and brought him back. I'm going to raise your bastard older brother and he's going to be just like me. He's going to kill you."

It was only a matter of time before I would end up responding to even the mildest of contact with his appearance, but this was outrageous. Tears were pouring freely down my face from either pain or fear, I didn't know which one was more in charge at this point.

": Pitiful.:" Jezze mumbled in a way audible enough for me to hear.

" Shut up... shut up, shut up, just fucking shut up! He strangled me and batted me around like a rag doll! I wouldn't be surprised if I got brain damage from it! You don't know how screwed up your logic sounds compared to mine. If you were me, I'd still be in that crank shack." Raising my voice was a rare thing for me to do, but this bitch was pissing me off. If it wasn't for my hidden want-almost need- for someone to distract my thoughts right then... I might not have heard Lawliet's words.

" This fingerprint doesn't match Wilhelm Senior's." Such menial words were absorbed by my subconscious and I was more thankful for that than I would ever admit.

" He's my half-brother." Must have thrown even the great Deneuve off.

" Beg your pardon?" Yup, the utter disbelief in L's voice was plainly there.

" Wilhelm the second's mother is Chloe Faire... before she got married. He... he had some sort of thing with her... and years later found his kid in the orphanage." Explaining this made me nearly pity the young man on the monitor. Both of his parents had what only one of my own had had and he ended up with it.

" While looking through the house, they also found these." L dropped some papers on the desk. I didn't feel like going over there and looking at them. Those mere papers seemed to ooze a deadly aura that whispered evil to me, and I went looking for a beer instead.

" Are you going to look at them?"

" Only after I'm drunk enough to deal with them." Bubbled from my lips while my eyes never left the array of papers.

A few hours later, I made up my mind, and got up to pick through the papers. I was almost shocked when the sheets of parchment didn't burn my fingers.

Reading them over, the more that entered my mind, the more emotionally confused I became. These thoughts of my feelings were mulled over and pin-balled around almost casually in my clear minded state. If I passed out later I knew when I woke up, I would feel an estrogen cocktail of things like fear, anger, disgust, and violation.

In my heart, mind, and soul, I had felt it was his fault and had always blamed him... but this was proof. Not only had he had 'relations' with my mother, but he had found the result, and trained him to be just as he was. It wasn't just that, though... no, he had been the very reason that my father had believed that it was God talking to him. The Charenton was where it had all began. Wilhelm had volunteered there and had been given a ward duty. From there he had told the patients stories and kept them entertained.

Spawned the 'Ritualistic Killing' cases in both Marseille, France and Tokyo, Japan by simply talking to them while they were in that place. I had never thought that he was that connected to that case.

Lawliet had been observing me discreetly from where he was sitting as he snacked leisurely on cake and coffee. Knowing that I should practically detest and maybe even temporarily hate him for letting me see this... I also felt indebted to him for giving me closure. Without this bit of documented info, I never would have learned the truth.

" We already have evidence of what Wilhelm the second did... that would give him a reason to disguise himself as his father after killing him. Since he never claimed it was self defense surely no juror would believe him trying to add it in, right? He'd have to change up his entire story if he did that."

" I don't think it matters what he says, Fleur... after all this has been put in trial he'll be given the death penalty." This was really the end of it all. I was finally going to be free of the reason I was afraid of every stupid little thing I was afraid of.

Because of Larmonte anyway.

So with an odd smile turned to apathetic line, I faced L.

" I want to be there when they give him the lethal injection."

" I won't have any control of the time-"

" I don't care...no matter the time of day... I don't care if they kill him on Christmas. Just knowing he's gone is enough for me." It wasn't just the strand of hair, or the blood on the knife that he had tried hiding in between the cushions of the couch that gave Wilhelm the second away. The way he had done away with his 'dear old dad' connected him to the seven murders he had committed while in the Netherlands. If he hadn't sent those bodies back for us to eventually find, he might have had a chance.

And let us not forget that he hadn't even tried to change his name while traveling to his desired destination.

I loved when people that were usually intelligent did stupid things.

XCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCXCX

Three months later

Noon

Seeing Jezebel out in public during the day for the first time in history almost made me wonder how much of her sanity she had left.

" Are you sure about this? I don't think you've had enough time to adjust to the morning world." She was sitting across from me with her feet propped up on my lap, forcing me to sit normally. Earlier that morning she had taken it upon herself to cut her hair, and it now hung two inches below her shoulders. Even now as she stuck her tongue out at me childishly, I had reason to believe that this was a good day for her.

I should probably tell her that she should at least make it look like she was serious about this day, but she just had this liberated glint in her eyes that told me that if I was going to tell her, I'd need a good way of doing so. If I couldn't find the right one, she'd no doubt turn it on me somehow and make me feel like a bad guy.

" I know this sounds corny but I've never been more sure of anything in my life, Law-kun! This feeling of nervousness isn't one felt from fear but more like... like happiness or something. Is that weird?" There was a slight déjà vu feeling for some reason.

" That's odd. For some reason or another I think I recall a very important person telling me not to ask questions that I didn't already know the answer to. I wonder who that could have been."

" I don't really know... it's just so, I don't know, exhilarating and history making." Her face twisted into one of confusion.

" Are they going to let him say his eulogy or that sort of thing?" It wasn't like I could blame her for her excited curiosity. The hardest thing for me to believe would've been if she had said that this wasn't her first time seeing a lethal injection.

I didn't have the time to answer as we had shown up at the site. Watari had opened the door and we both thanked him. Fleur herself had hugged the man.

" This is supposed to be serious, huh?" Her respectful whisper made me nod, and I had to be secretive about it because we were in the viewing room with family members and friends of the victims. It made sense to me why she had asked when she had more than likely been scanning around the room, checking all the faces of the people there.

" Everyone reacts differently to things like this, but the general response is a solemn one." While I had been explaining the meaning to her, the people working here had brought in Wilhelm the Second and strapped him to the table, making sure that every single one was tightly buckled before they slid the IV under his arm.

That's when he spoke.

" You're here, aren't you, Miss Shanton?" My gaze went to the girl he was directly talking to, a wave of concern washing over me. Just when I thought I'd have to carry a freaked out woman out of the room, I noticed the proud triumph in her sharp eyes as she seemed to easily hold her ground against him.

" I bet you are. Probably got front row seating, too. There's something you still don't know. Something, I'm sure you're just dying to hear. Not just you, though, but also the other people in that room with you. You want to know why he killed them? Started it all and kept it going until the very end." If it were possible her eyes were even more trained on him and I knew she couldn't hear anything else but what he was saying.

" One would think that it would be obvious." Even on his death bed he was messing with her.

" He did it so he could pass the time in a way that he'd never get bored of." With that being said, they poisoned him.

We were still there after everyone had left. Jezebel seemed determined to wait until they had all disappeared until she said anything.

" How are you feeling?" I spoke first and she took in a breath, exhaling like she was finally alive.

" Jezze's gone, Law-kun." Then she hugged me.

" Jezze died with that sick twist." Pulling back, her mood changed again and she became thoughtful.

" Let's go out for cake." Big change.

" At your place." I guess I spoke too soon, and I smiled. She was back.

Fin


End file.
